NGC 5843 is a rarely imaged barred spiral galaxy located 210 million light years away in Lupus. The galaxy is very small in the field of view at only 1.9 x 1.1 ‘.
It is an emission line galaxy. An emission line appears in a spectrum if the source emits specific wavelengths of radiation. Emission lines are usually seen as bright lines, or lines of increased intensity, on a continuous spectrum. This is seen in galactic spectra where there is a thermal continuum from the combined lightof all the stars, with strong emission line features due to the most common elements such as hydrogen and helium.
In the case of NGC 5843 this indicates very active star formation.
Imaged in LRGB on our Planewave CDK 1000 at Observatorio El Sauce, Chile.
Image Processing: Mike Selby