NGC 5907  -  The Splinter Galaxy

Full resolution (1600x1200 px  500kB)

150% resolution (700kB)

Object identification (420kB)

Inverted image showing the tidal tail (700kB)

DSLR widefield image

Object data of NGC5907
Object type: galaxy (Sc)
Size: 11.8' x 1.3'
Magnitude: 11.1 mag
Constellation: Dra
Distance: 33 Mio Ly
   
Notes: Because NGC5907 is seen almost exactly edge-on and because it appears extremely elongated, shaped like a "knife edge" or a splinter, it's popular name is "splinter galaxy".

The above image shows a very faint tidal tail (better visible in the inverted image), which forms a loop extending more than 150,000 light-years from the narrow, edge-on spiral galaxy. This loop represents the ghostly trail of a dwarf galaxy, which merged with NGC5907 over four billion years ago.

KUG1513+566 is a dwarf companion galaxy of NGC5907 (clearly visible on the right side above the splinter galaxy). This galaxy is responsible for the warped disk of NGC5907, which can be better seen in the inverted image.

Near the bottom side of the above image one can identify two distant galaxy clusters:

  • NSC J151718+560754 at z=0.10 (light travel time = 1.3 billion years)
  • NSC J151551+560911 at z=0.27 (light travel time = 3.0 billion years)

A further extremely distant galaxy cluster can be found near the left side of the above image:

  • WHL J151732.0+562357 at z=0.45 (light travel time =4.6 billion years)

Exposure data
Date: 2010-06-04 + 05 + 06 + 09 + 14
Location: Nussbach / Austria (400m)
Telescope: 12" Newtonian telescope (f=1120mm)
Camera: ST2000XM with CFW8 and Baader Filters
Binning: L 1x1 / RGB 2x2
Exposure time: L 34x12m / R 14x8m / G 14x8m / B 14x8m
Exposure time total: 12h 24m

 

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