This highly disturbed object is the result of a merger between two galaxies,which now results in an ultraluminous IR-object in the constellation of Ophiuchus,named NGC6240.Visually of magntude 12.8mag and with an apparent size of only 2.1´x 1.1´ ,NGC6240 was first seen by E.J.-M.Stephan in 1871.
Its real distance is about 400 million light-years.In 2013 the supernova-event SN 2013dc has been observed there.
After having merged,two massive black holes with a distance of 3000 light-years stayed rested in the middle of the remnant.Soon these two will merge to a single black hole,because their distance is too small,to escape from each other.
position (epoch2000):
RA.: 16h 52m 58.9s
Decl.: +02° 24′ 03″
image data:
LRGB image with L = 22x1200s, RGB = 7x1200s each,a total of 14.4 hours
80cm f/7 AstroOptik Keller corrected cassegrain
FLI Proline 16803 Astrodon LRGB GenII filters
Prompt 7 CTIO/UNC Chile,remote controlled
image processing: Bernd Flach-Wilken
this is a 72%-FOV of the CCD-camera.Click here for full resolution.
here you see a larger version of this galaxy:
a look to NGC6240 with the HST can be seen here