by tte-77
NGC 6744. Image Credit: ESO
Astronomers say that this faraway galaxy – NGC 6744 – is a twin to our own Milky Way galaxy.
The image shown is said to be the best image yet of NGC 6744, released recently by astronomers at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile.
Astronomers took images of NGC 6744 with the Wide Field Imager attached to the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory, Chile. The images have been created by using the exposures taken through four different filters that passed blue, yellow-green and red light and the glow coming from hydrogen gas.
Similar to the Milky Way, NGC 6744 has satellite galaxies too. You can see one of them — NGC 6744A – as a smudge to the lower right of NGC 6744.
NGC 6744 in a widefield view. Image Credit: ESO
NGC 6744 is located around 30 million light-years away in the direction of the constellation of Pavo, The Peacock, which is a southern hemisphere constellation.
Astronomers say that one difference between NGC 6744 and the Milky Way is their size. While our galaxy is roughly 100,000 light-years across – NGC 6744 is twice as big. It extends to almost 200,000 light-years! While it is almost twice as large, NGC 6744 exhibits the same sharply defined spiral arms and stretched central region as the Milky Way.
Source: EarthSky
Filed under: ESO, Galaxy, tte-77 Tagged: 2011, astronomical, Astronomy, best, best image, chile, clouds, cosmological, ESO, events, galaxy, images, milky way, NGC 6744, Observatory, Pavo, peacock, postaweek2011, skywatching, southern hemisphere, space, telescope, twin, twitter
