NGC 1097

NGC 1097 is a nearby barred spiral galaxy believed to be interacting with the elliptical galaxy NGC 1097A located on the upper left (small egg-like object). It is located at a distance of 45 million light years away and its story is linked to the strong interaction that is generating tidal debris and huge distortions.

It hosts a Seyfert 1 nucleus surrounded by a circumnuclear starburst ring. The inner yellow core is quite challenging to capture due to its high luminance compared to the rest of the galaxy. This demonstrates that the core contains a very active nucleus. The rest of the galaxy displays two blue beautiful spiral arms with very dynamic features, the upper arm tracing dust to the interacting galaxy.

Scientists were able to simulate and accurately reproduce the most relevant features of this galaxy, explaining the presence of a circumnuclear disk, nuclear ring, dust lanes, spiral arms and characteristic velocity features in the context of this merge.