Atomic Gas in the Ring Galaxy Arp 143

A composite image of the optical light (green and yellow) and cold atomic hydrogen gas (blue) in the "Ring Galaxy" Arp 143 (a.k.a. NGC 2444/5). The atomic hydrogen observations, taken with the VLA in its C and D-array configurations, shows a suprising gaseous tidal tails reaching far to the north of this galaxy, to a total distance of 175 kpc or 570,000 light years in length (for Ho=75 km/s/Mpc). There was no hint of this tidal tail in previous optical images. Deeper optical imaging may show a hint of starlight associated with the tail, but it is mostly a gaseous structure. Notice gas also associated with the classical grand-design spiral galaxy to the right

VLA C+D array observations obtained by Appleton et al. (1987), with a resolution of 28". Optical image is R-band image taken by J. Hibbard with the KPNO 0.9m telescope in 10/92.

Legacy Astronomical Images

NRAO/AUI/NSF does not hold full copyright for this image. Contact the archivist for details.

Legacy Astronomical Image

Arp 143

P. Appleton, F. Ghigo, J. van Gorkom, J. Schombert, C. Struck-Marcell

Very Large Array (VLA)

1987-06-06

spectral line

21 cm

1420.4 MHz

HI

RA 7:46:35.200, Dec: 39:6:4.000 (J2000)

0.216667 x 0.250000 degrees

Contact the archivist for a high resolution tif of this image.

Galaxies Series

Peculiar Unit