ESO510-13

PR Photo 20e/99 shows a sky field in the southern constellation Hydra
(The Water-snake) that includes the peculiar spiral galaxy ESO
510-13. It ressembles the famous "Sombrero" galaxy, but its equatorial
dust plane is pronouncedly warped. The velocity is 3300 km/sec, the
distance is about 170 million light-years and the size is 100,000
light-years.

The fact that the dust band and the rest of this galaxy are not well
aligned is a clear sign that the former was acquired recently (in
astronomical terms). The dust band is still in the process of
achieving a more stable state by becoming flat. It is not obvious how
it was formed; it may for instance be the result of a merger with a
gas-rich dwarf galaxy and the elliptical galaxy.  In any case, this is
a most interesting object that will undoubtedly soon be studied in
more detail, with the VLT and other large telescopes.

The photo displays a very large number of fainter objects near this
galaxy. Many of these are likely to be globular clusters of stars
associated with the galaxy; others are background galaxies. It would
indeed appear that ESO 510-13 is located right in front of one or
more, distant clusters of galaxies.

This three-colour composite (BVI) was obtained with VLT ANTU and FORS
in the morning of March 15, 1999. Field size: 6.8x6.8 arcmin2; North
is up and East is to the left.