NGC 7424 - Grand Design Barred Spiral in Grus

NGC 7424, a face-on grand-design barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Grus, lies at a distance of roughly 37.5 million light-years. Classified as SAB(rs)cd, it shows an intermediate bar structure and very well-defined, open spiral arms that give it a majestic look. Its total size is comparable to the Milky Way, about 100,000 light-years in diameter. The spiral arms glow with blueish star-forming regions, full of H II regions and young star clusters. Two ultraluminous X-ray sources have been discovered in NGC 7424, suggesting compact energetic objects, and at least one supernova (SN 2001ig, a rare Type IIb) has been observed in its outskirts. Although often considered part of the IC 1459 Grus Group, NGC 7424 may actually be more isolated (“field galaxy”), which underlines its remarkably pristine, well-defined spiral structure.

15 hours of LRGB data acquired using Telescope Live’s older CHI-1 CCD system. ~4 hours of H-alpha data was also collected but after continuum subtraction showed no signal at all, so was not used.

Sources:

wikipedia.org

theskylive.com

Data credit: Telescope.Live