NGC 7225 Veiled Structures, Revealed in Depth
Lying quietly in the southern constellation Piscis Austrinus, the spiral galaxy NGC 7225 is located about 233 million light-years from Earth. It spans roughly 110,000 light-years across, with an apparent angular size of 1.5 × 0.8 arcminutes.
At first glance, its smooth and diffuse central region might suggest a lenticular galaxy. But closer examination—especially in deep exposures like this—reveals asymmetric, faint spiral arms, dust lanes, and subtle tidal extensions, pointing to a more complex structure. Its formal classification is SA(s)b: an unbarred spiral galaxy with moderately wound arms and no ring.
Most striking is the ghostly tidal stream curving outward from the galaxy—a whisper of past gravitational encounters. The inner disk contains dark dust structures, and near the nucleus, hints of blue suggest ongoing star formation amid the otherwise subdued stellar population. Scattered throughout the field are numerous background galaxies, adding depth and context to this seldom-featured system.
Imaged in LRGB on my Planewave CDK 1000 at Observatorio El Sauce, Chile.
Image acquisition and processing: Mike Selby