Galaxy NGC 1316 has many skeletons in its closet — literally.
Located about 60 million light-years from Earth in the southern constellation Fornax (Constellation Kiln), NGC 1316 is a large lenticular galaxy, which means a very colorful past. It is noteworthy that the brightest source of radio emission in Fornax and the fourth in the whole sky are powerful emissions caused by the activity of a supermassive black hole hiding in its core.
Now, astronomers using the 2.2-meter MPG / ESO telescope at La Silla Observatory, Chile, were able to make a detailed image of the structure of the galaxy, revealing its extraordinary dust streaks and small star clusters. After some analysis, astronomers discovered that these features were created when NGC 1316 swallowed a smaller galaxy about 3 billion years ago. The observations also revealed subtle traces of stars coming from intergalactic space - a sure sign of the gravitational interactions of the galaxy NGC 1316 during its cannibal past. This is a kind of galactic “battle scars” and their presence looks like a cosmic memorial of the past of galaxies.
Located next to NGC 1316, the object is an elegant spiral galaxy NGC 1317, which seems to have a less intense history. However, a small spiral, which is very close to NGC 1316, indicates that the galaxy NGC 1317 is next in the menu list.
This picture shows the sky around a pair of galaxies NGC 1316 and 1317. It was created from images taken with the Digitized Sky Survey 2.
