Galaxy NGC 2146 | Hubble & Chandra [Budget Alert: Chandra to be Canceled)

Galaxy NGC 2146 | Hubble & Chandra [Budget Alert: Chandra to be Canceled)

NGC 2146 is a spiral galaxy with one of its dusty arms blocking the view of the galaxy’s center from Earth’s perspective. X-rays from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory show double star systems and hot gas that is being driven away from the galaxy by supernova explosions and winds from giant stars.

X-rays from Chandra show as pink and purple, while optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope and the Las Cumbres Observatory in Chile and infrared data from the National Science Foundation’s Kitt Peak Observatory are in red, green, and blue.

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is being canceled in NASA's Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Request, along with 18 other active science missions. NASA's science budget is being reduced by nearly 50%. NASA's total budget will become the lowest since 1961, after accounting for inflation.

Contact your representatives in the United States Congress, House and Senate, to express your concerns about severe budget cuts at NASA:

https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials/

NASA's Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Request (PDF) Document Download: https://www.nasa.gov/fy-2026-budget-request/ (See Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Request Summary)

NGC 2146 is classified as a barred spiral due to its shape, but the most distinctive feature is the dusty spiral arm that has looped in front of the galaxy's core as seen from our perspective. The forces required to pull this structure out of its natural shape and twist it up to 45 degrees are colossal. The most likely explanation is that a neighboring galaxy is gravitationally perturbing it and distorting the orbits of many of NGC 2146’s stars. It is probable that we are currently witnessing the end stages of a process which has been occurring for tens of millions of years.

NCG 2146 is undergoing intense bouts of star formation, to such an extent that it is referred to as a starburst galaxy. This is a common state for barred spirals, but the extra gravitational disruption that NGC 2146 is enduring no doubt exacerbates the situation, compressing hydrogen-rich nebulae and triggering stellar birth.

Measuring about 80,000 light-years from end to end, NGC 2146 is slightly smaller than the Milky Way. It lies approximately 70 million light-years distant in the faint northern constellation of Camelopardalis (The Giraffe). Although it is fairly easy to see with a moderate-sized telescope as a faint elongated blur of light it was not spotted until 1876 when the German astronomer Friedrich Winnecke found it visually using just a 16 cm telescope.

Credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI and NOIRLab/NSF/AURA Infrared: NSF/NOAO/KPNO

Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/L. Frattare
Release Date: Aug. 11, 2025

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