The Dusty Galaxy NGC 1316 - A3 Size Photo Print

This is a borderless Space print called "'The Dusty Galaxy NGC 1316".

The print has been made on A3 Size (420 x 297 mm, 16.5 x 11.7") matte photo paper. Both the inks and the paper are of archival quality and the paper has a weight of 102gsm.

This is not a glossy print; it's a 1440 DPI photo quality matte print. It's a nice print.

Postage on this print is only £1.40 for second class post, and all prints are shipped in a sturdy cardboard tube.

About this image:

This image made from data obtained with the NASA Hubble Space Telescope reveals the dust lanes and star clusters of this giant galaxy that give evidence that it was formed from a past merger of two gas-rich galaxies.

The combination of Hubble's superb spatial resolution and the sensitivity of the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), installed onboard Hubble in 2002 and used for these images, enabled uniquely accurate measurements of a class of red star clusters in NGC 1316. Astronomers conclude that these star clusters constitute clear evidence of the occurrence of a major collision of two spiral galaxies that merged together a few billion years ago to shape NGC 1316 as it appears today.

NGC 1316 is on the outskirts of a nearby cluster of galaxies in the southern constellation of Fornax, at a distance of about 75 million light-years. It is one of the brightest ellipticals in the Fornax galaxy cluster. NGC 1316, also known as Fornax A, is one of the strongest and largest radio sources in the sky, with radio lobes extending over several degrees of sky (well off the Hubble image).

NGC 1316's violent history is evident in various ways. The inner regions of the galaxy shown in the Hubble image reveal a complicated system of dust lanes and patches. These are thought to be the remains of the interstellar medium associated with one or more of the spiral galaxies swallowed by NGC 1316.

These Hubble ACS images were taken in March 2003. The color composite is a combination of data taken in F435W (blue), F555W (yellow-green), and F814W (infrared) filters. The team's results have improved our understanding of how elliptical galaxies and their star clusters may have formed during galaxy mergers and then evolve to resemble 'normal' elliptical galaxies after several billions of years.