NGC 5363

A beautiful galaxy pair consisting of NGC5363 and NGC5364 located in the Virgo constellation around 63 million light years away from us. [Right] ~ NGC5363 is a lenticular galaxy which has an elliptical shape and an extremely faint dust disk orbiting around it's center. This dust lane is actually barely visible in this image and is emitted towards the infrared. The reason for its formation is most probably a merger with another galaxy that generated star formation structures or gravitational interactions withing the Virgo galaxy cluster. [Left] ~ NGC5364 is actual closer to us at around 54 million light years but is still gravitationally interacting with NGC5363. The interesting feature is the left arm which is kind of fuzzy and elongated suggesting that it might have interacted with another galaxy or even the influence of NGC5363.