NGC 3447 - HST - Potw1712a
Defying cosmic convention
Some galaxies are harder to classify than others. Here, Hubble’s trusty Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) has captured a striking view of two interacting galaxies located some 60 million light-years away in the constellation of Leo (The Lion). The more diffuse and patchy blue glow covering the right side of the frame is known as NGC 3447 — sometimes NGC 3447B for clarity, as the name NGC 3447 can apply to the overall duo. The smaller clump to the upper left is known as NGC 3447A.
The trouble with space is that it is, to state the obvious, really, really big. Astronomers have for hundreds of years been discovering and naming galaxies, stars, cosmic clouds and more. Unifying and regulating the conventions and classifications for everything ever observed is very difficult, especially when you get an ambiguous object like NGC 3447, which stubbornly defies easy categorisation.
Overall, we know NGC 3447 comprises a couple of interacting galaxies, but we’re unsure what each looked like before they began to tear one another apart. The two sit so close that they are strongly influenced and distorted by the gravitational forces between them, causing the galaxies to twist themselves into the unusual and unique shapes seen here. NGC 3447A appears to display the remnants of a central bar structure and some disrupted spiral arms, both properties characteristic of certain spiral galaxies. Some identify NGC 3447B as a former spiral galaxy, while others categorise it as being an irregular galaxy.
Credit:
ESA/Hubble & NASA Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA
Coordinates Position (RA): 10 53 25.20 Position (Dec): 16° 46' 42.34" Field of view: 2.70 x 2.31 arcminutes Orientation: North is 40.5° left of vertical Colours & filters Band Wavelength Telescope Optical V 555 nm Hubble Space Telescope WFC3 Optical I 814 nm Hubble Space Telescope WFC3 Optical Very Broad 350 nm Hubble Space Telescope WFC3.
![]() ![]() |
ESA/Hubble images, videos and web texts are released by the ESA under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license and may on a non-exclusive basis be reproduced without fee provided they are clearly and visibly credited. Detailed conditions are below; see the ESA copyright statement for full information. For images created by NASA or on the hubblesite.org website, or for ESA/Hubble images on the esahubble.org site before 2009, use the {{PD-Hubble}} tag.
Conditions:
Notes:
|
![]() |
- Dieses Werk darf von dir
- verbreitet werden – vervielfältigt, verbreitet und öffentlich zugänglich gemacht werden
- neu zusammengestellt werden – abgewandelt und bearbeitet werden
- Zu den folgenden Bedingungen:
- Namensnennung – Du musst angemessene Urheber- und Rechteangaben machen, einen Link zur Lizenz beifügen und angeben, ob Änderungen vorgenommen wurden. Diese Angaben dürfen in jeder angemessenen Art und Weise gemacht werden, allerdings nicht so, dass der Eindruck entsteht, der Lizenzgeber unterstütze gerade dich oder deine Nutzung besonders.
Relevante Artikel
NGC 3447NGC 3447 ist eine Balken-Spiralgalaxie vom Hubble-Typ SBdm/P im Sternbild Löwe auf der Ekliptik. Sie ist schätzungsweise 44 Millionen Lichtjahre von der Milchstraße entfernt und hat einen Durchmesser von etwa 55.000 Lichtjahren. Gemeinsam mit PGC 32700 bildet sie ein gebundenes Galaxienpaar und zusammen mit NGC 3457, PGC 32826 und PGC 32747 die NGC 3447-Gruppe. .. weiterlesen