News Release Archive:

News Release 121 of 884

August 5, 2010 11:00 AM (EDT)

News Release Number: STScI-2010-25

A Galactic Spectacle

Technical facts about this news release:

About the Object

Object Name:	NGC 4038/4039, Antennae Galaxies
Object Description:	Interacting Galaxies
Position (J2000):	R.A. 12h 01m 53s.18 Dec. -18° 52' 52 ".4
Constellation:	Corvus
Distance:	60 million light-years (19 megaparsecs)
Dimensions:	The composite image of the Antennae Galaxies is 34 arcminutes (59,000 light-years or 18,000 parsecs) wide.

About the Spitzer Data

Data Description:	The Spitzer Space Telescope data were courtesy of NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Z. Wang (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA).
Instrument:	Infrared Array Camera (IRAC)
Exposure Date(s):	December 24, 2003
Filters:	8.0 microns

About the Hubble Data

Data Description:	The Hubble component was from the HST proposal 10188: B. Whitmore (STScI) et al.
Instrument:	ACS/WFC
Exposure Date(s):	July 21, 2004 and February 16, 2005
Exposure Time:	4.9 hours
Filters:	F435W (B), F550M (y), and F814W (I)

About the Chandra Data

Data Description:	The science team was led by J. DePasquale. Image courtesy of NASA/CXC/SAO/J. DePasquale.
Instrument:	ACIS
Exposure Date(s):	December 1999 - July 2002
Energies:	0.45 - 8 keV

About the Image

Image Credit:

NASA, ESA, SAO, CXC, JPL-Caltech, and STScI

Release Date:

August 5, 2010

Color:

This image is a composite of many separate exposures made by the NASA Great Observatories. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic image. In this case, the assigned colors are:

Chandra X-ray Observatory	X-ray	blue
Hubble Space Telescope	Optical/Visible	yellow
Spitzer Space Telescope	Infrared	red