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The barred spiral galaxy NGC 925 reveals cosmic pyrotechnics in its spiral arms where bursts of star formation are taking place in the red, glowing clouds scattered throughout it.
The bar is offset from the center of the galaxy and is the site of star formation all along its length. Both of these morphological traits – a dominant spiral arm and the offset bar – are typically characteristics of a Magellanic spiral galaxy. The galaxy is inclined at an angle of 55° to the line of sight along a position angle of 102°.
The Amatha galaxy is a member of the NGC 1023 Group, a nearby, gravitationally-bound group of galaxies associated with NGC 1023. However, the nearest member lies at least 650,000 ly (200,000 pc) distant from NGC 925. There is a 10 million solar mass (M☉) cloud of neutral hydrogen attached to NGC 925 by a streamer. It is uncertain whether this is a satellite dwarf galaxy, the remnant of a past tidal interaction, or a cloud of primordial gas.
Image Credit: KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA
Acknowledgements: PI: M T. Patterson (New Mexico State University)
Image processing: Travis Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage), Mahdi Zamani & Davide de Martin
Image enhancement: Jean-Baptiste Faure
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