Atomic Gas in the Merging System NGC 520

A composite image of the optical light (green), warm gas (yellow), and cold atomic hydrogen gas (blue) in the merging system NGC 520, also known as Arp 157. NGC 520 is the galaxy near the middle, and is believed to be the result of two disk galaxies currently colliding; a galactic "train wreck". It has a nearby dwarf companion named UGC 957 (labeled in this image). The atomic hydrogen observations, taken with the VLA in its C- and D-array configurations, reveals a nearly complete gaseous ring going right through UGC 957, and astronomers are not sure how this came to be.

VLA C+D array observations with a resolution of 24". Optical image is an R-band image, and both this image and the continuum subtracted Halpha image were obtained with the KPNO 0.9m telescope.

Legacy Astronomical Images

NRAO/AUI/NSF does not hold full copyright for this image. Contact the archivist for details.

Legacy Astronomical Image

NGC520

J. Hibbard

J. Hibbard, J. van Gorkom

Very Large Array (VLA)

1991-05-13

spectral line

21 cm

1420.4 MHz

HI

RA 1:21:57.700, Dec: 3:33:7.000 (B1950)

0.216667 x 0.216667 degrees

Contact the archivist for a high resolution tif of this image.

Galaxies Series

Peculiar Unit