NGC 3981 is a spiral galaxy located 70 million light-years away in the constellation of Crater. It was discovered on February 7, 1785 by William Herschel.
It is also known as Arp289 due to its unusual morphological properties. Its spiral arms are heavily distorted due to gravitational interaction in the past.
NGC 3981 is a member of the NGC 4038 Group which is part of the Virgo Supercluster.
Find a new image from the ESO VLT: here.
Image data:
LRGB (520-160-160-160 min) total 16,7 h, north is up, seeing 0.8-1.3 arc-sec,
80cm f/7 Astrooptik Keller cassegrain, FLI PL-16803, Astrodon gen2 filters, Prompt 7 CTIO Chile
Processing: Johannes Schedler
Find a cropped image in 40/80% size and a a full frame image in 25/70% size below.