Atomic Gas in the Ring Galaxy Arp 143

https://www.nrao.edu/archives/plugins/Dropbox/files/a143RGB_hi.jpg

Description

A composite image of the optical light (green and yellow) and cold atomic hydrogen gas (blue) in the "Ring Galaxy" Arp 143 (a.k.a. NGC 2444/5). The atomic hydrogen observations, taken with the VLA in its C and D-array configurations, shows a suprising gaseous tidal tails reaching far to the north of this galaxy, to a total distance of 175 kpc or 570,000 light years in length (for Ho=75 km/s/Mpc). There was no hint of this tidal tail in previous optical images. Deeper optical imaging may show a hint of starlight associated with the tail, but it is mostly a gaseous structure. Notice gas also associated with the classical grand-design spiral galaxy to the right
VLA C+D array observations obtained by Appleton et al. (1987), with a resolution of 28". Optical image is R-band image taken by J. Hibbard with the KPNO 0.9m telescope in 10/92.

Creator

Legacy Astronomical Images

Rights

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

Type

Legacy Astronomical Image

Object Name

Arp 143

Photographer

Investigators

P. Appleton, F. Ghigo, J. van Gorkom, J. Schombert, C. Struck-Marcell

Telescope

Very Large Array (VLA)

Observation Date

1987-06-06

Type of Observation

spectral line

Wavelength

21 cm

Frequency

1420.4 MHz

Species

HI

Center of Image

RA 7:46:35.200, Dec: 39:6:4.000 (J2000)

Field of View

0.216667 x 0.250000 degrees

Link to journal article

Notes

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

Series

Galaxies Series

Unit

Peculiar Unit

Citation

Legacy Astronomical Images, “Atomic Gas in the Ring Galaxy Arp 143,” NRAO/AUI Archives, accessed March 29, 2024, https://www.nrao.edu/archives/items/show/33559.