PGC 6240 (2012)

Even though I’ve expressed some frustration with elliptical galaxies in the past, they are really starting to grow on me. They are subtle and seem more mysterious to me than eye-catching, dusty spirals. I’m not only attracted to the soft forms of this galaxy but there are so many galaxies filling the background it’s not something you want to crop the edges away from. Also of interest is that the core of the galaxy is bright enough to generate faint diffraction spikes. The shape of the galaxy is probably caused by gravitational interaction with another nearby galaxy which is off to the right.

Data used:
HST_10227_02_ACS_WFC_F814W_sci
HST_10227_02_ACS_WFC_F475W_sci

Copyright information:
Hubble data is public domain, but I put a lot of work into combining it into beautiful color images. The minimal credit line should read: NASA / ESA / J. Schmidt

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.