4216

  

NGC 4216, the galaxy in the center, is a metal-rich spiral galaxy in the constellation Virgo. Metal-rich means there is greater than normal abundance of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium. It is an intrinsically bright galaxy with an absolute magnitude brighter than the Andromeda Galaxy. There are many other galaxies present in this FOV and star streams have been determined to exist between some of them. The next image shows this in more detail. It is thought the star streams are due to the destruction of dwarf galaxies because of interactions with the bigger galaxies like NGC 4216. The blue fuzz-ball at the lower left is galaxy PGC 3931. At the top is NGC 4222. PGC 39247 is next to NGC 4216 with NGC 4206 at the bottom. And there is a very small spiral galaxy, PGC 39176 center-right. There are probably thousands of other galaxies in this FOV also. Subs: 45x300s 1x1 L 21x300s 2x2 RGB, 5.85 total hours of integrationOrientation: North is up. FOV 32 x 24Instrumentation: 457mm F4.