ESA/Hubble Picture of the Month · November 10, 2025
A disruptive neighbour
Where it is in your sky
- Object
- NGC 1511 · Galaxy
- Constellation
- Hydrus
- Distance
- 50 million light years
- Field of view
- 2.7′ (the full Moon is 31′)
- Best seen
- Evenings from September to January; highest at midnight in November
- Climbs above 20°
- From the South Pole to 2° N
- Never rises
- North of 22° N
- What you need
- A larger telescope (200 mm+) and dark skies
Tonight from your location
From the source
Though interesting to look at, NGC 1511 is one galaxy you might not want for a neighbour. Seen in this ESA/Hubble Picture of the Week, NGC 1511 is a peculiar spiral galaxy located roughly 50 million light-years away in the constellation Hydrus.
Like many galaxies, NGC 1511 doesn’t travel through space alone. Instead, it does so with a pair of small galactic companions called NGC 1511A and NGC 1511B, both of which lie outside the frame of this Hubble image. NGC 1511B is situated closest to NGC 1511, and the two galaxies have apparently clashed in the past; a narrow strand of hydrogen gas connects them, and NGC 1511B has been stretched and distorted by the encounter. Researchers have even found evidence that NGC 1511 once had another small companion galaxy that it has disrupted entirely!
These disruptions have an impact on NGC 1511, too. The galaxy is experiencing a burst of star formation, and its disc features strange loops and plumes that could point to past interactions with its neighbouring galaxies. Researchers will use Hubble’s keen observations of NGC 1511 to study star clusters embedded within its dusty gas, seeking to understand how matter is cycled from interstellar clouds to stars and back to clouds once again.
From ESA/Hubble Picture of the Month. ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker, CC BY 4.0; links removed.
