This new image from ESA’s Euclid space telescope shows two large galaxies: NGC 646 and NGC 646b. They look like neighbors, but they’re actually about 45 million light-years apart.
This Euclid image shows the barred spiral galaxy NGC 646 and the smaller, faint and round galaxy NGC 646b. Image credit: ESA / Euclid /Euclid Consortium / NASA / M. Schirmer, MPIA / CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.
NGC 646 is located approximately 392 million light-years away in the constellation of Hydrus.
This barred spiral galaxy was discovered on November 2, 1834 by the British astronomer John Herschel.
Otherwise known as ESO 80-2, IRAS 01357-6508 or LEDA 6010, it is moving away from us at about 8,145 km per second.
“In this Euclid image, NGC 646 appears close to a smaller galaxy to the left, called PGC 6014 (NGC 646b),” members of the Euclid Consortium said in a statement.
“They look like neighbors, but they’re actually about 45 million light-years apart, with PGC 6014 at a distance of 347 million light-years from us.”
“So, any gravitational interaction between them, if it exists, would be very weak and short-lived.”
By the end of 2026, ESA and the Euclid Consortium will release the first year of observations, covering about 1,900 square degrees of the sky (approximately 14% of the total survey area).
These images will reveal hundreds of thousands of galaxies in exquisite detail.
They will also offer new insights into how galaxies form and evolve — and why barred galaxies become more common as the Universe ages.
“NGC 646 is actually quite close compared to the billions of galaxies that Euclid will observe during its six-year mission,” the astronomers said.
