NGC6872

PR Photo 20b/99 is another three-colour composite, this time
reproduced from one blue (B), one green-yellow (V) and one red (R)
exposure, obtained with FORS1 at ANTU in the morning of March 29,
1999. The field size is again 6.8x6.8 arcmin2.

It shows the spectacular barred spiral galaxy NGC 6872 that is shaped
like an "integral sign". It is of type SBb and is accompanied by a
smaller, interacting galaxy, IC 4970 of type S0 (just above the
centre). The bright object to the lower right of the galaxies is a
star in the Milky Way whose image has been strongly overexposed and
exhibits multiple optical reflections in the telescope and
instrument. There are also many other, fainter and more distant
galaxies of many different forms in the field. They are particularly
well visible on the "Normal" and "Full Resolution" versions of the
photo.

The upper left spiral arm of NGC 6872 is significantly disturbed and
is populated by a plethora of blueish objects, many of which are
star-forming regions. This may have been be caused by a recent passage
of IC 4970 through it.

This interesting system is located in the southern constellation Pavo
(The Peacock). It is comparatively distant, almost 300 million
light-years away. It extends over more than 7 arcmin in the sky and
its real size from tip to tip is thus nearly 750,000 light-years. It
is in fact one of the largest known, barred spiral galaxies.

In order to image all of this extraordinary object within the
available field of the FORS1 camera, the instrument was rotated so
that the galaxy extends along the diagonal. For this reason, the
orientation is such that North is to the upper right and East is to
the upper left.