NGC 5566

Alt. Designations:

NGC 5566, ARP 286

Object Type:

barred spiral galaxy

Constellation:

Virgo

Distance:

90 mly

Right Ascension:

14h 20m 20.0s

Declination:

+03° 55´ 59"

Visual Magnitude:

10.7

Apparent Dimension:

6.6´ X 2.3´

Best Month To View:

Apr

This picture features a trio of interacting galaxies almost 90 million light-years away, toward the constellation Virgo. Predominately yellow, with sweeping spiral arms and dust lanes, NGC 5566 is enormous, about 150,000 light-years across. Just below it lies small, blue NGC 5569. Near center, the third galaxy, NGC 5560, is multicolored and apparently stretched and distorted by its interaction with NGC 5566. The galaxy trio is also included in Halton Arp's 1966 Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies as Arp 286.