Close-up: Irregular Galaxy NGC 4485 in Canes Venatici | Hubble Space Telescope

Close-up: Irregular Galaxy NGC 4485 in Canes Venatici | Hubble Space Telescope

NGC 4485 has been involved in a dramatic gravitational interplay with its larger galactic neighbor NGC 4490—out of frame to the bottom right in this image. This altered the original, ordered spiral structure of the galaxy and transformed it into an irregular one.

Distance from Earth: 30 million light years

The interaction also created a stream of material about 25,000 light-years long, connecting the two galaxies. The stream, visible to the right of the galaxy is made up of bright knots and huge pockets of gassy regions, as well as enormous regions of star formation where young, massive, blue stars are born.

Below NGC 4485 one can see a bright, orange background galaxy: CXOU J123033.6+414057. This galaxy is the source of X-ray radiation studied by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. Its distance from Earth is about 850 million light-years.

Credit: ESA/Hubble, NASA
Acknowledgement: T. Roberts (Durham University), D. Calzetti (University of Massachusetts) and the LEGUS Team, R. Tully (University of Hawaii) and R. Chandar (University of Toledo)

Duration: 25 seconds
Release Date: May 16, 2019

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