NGC 4373 and IC 3290 are a rarely imaged pair of galaxies situated 177 million light years away in Centaurus . NGC 4373 is an elliptical galaxy while IC 3290 is variously classified as lenticular or spiral.
Very little research has been published on this pair. Given their proximity they are clearly heavily interacting and appear to be merging. What is perhaps unusual is that despite the interaction the arms of IC3290 have maintained their symmetry.
Imaged in LRGB on our PlaneWave CDK 1000 at Observatorio El Sauce, Chile.
Image Processing: Mike Selby
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