Explanation:
NGC 3314
is actually two large spiral
galaxies which just happen to almost exactly line up.
The foreground spiral is viewed nearly
face-on, its
pinwheel shape defined by young bright star clusters.
But against the glow of the background galaxy, dark swirling lanes of
interstellar dust appear to
dominate the face-on spiral's structure.
The dust lanes are
surprisingly pervasive, and this remarkable
pair of
overlapping galaxies is one of a small number of systems in which
absorption of light from beyond a galaxy's own stars
can be used to directly
explore
its distribution of dust.
NGC 3314 is
about 140 million light-years (background galaxy) and 117 million
light-years (foreground galaxy) away in the multi-headed
constellation
Hydra.
The background galaxy would span nearly 70,000
light-years at its estimated distance.
A synthetic third channel was created to
construct this dramatic
new
composite of the overlapping galaxies
from two color image data in the Hubble Legacy Archive.
Learn More:
Take an introductory astronomy class on
Starship Asterisk.
