Featured Image: A New Look at Malin 1

Monochrome, inverted version of Malin 1. [Adapted from Galaz et al. 2015]The above image of Malin 1, the faintest and largest low-surface-brightness galaxy ever observed, was obtained with an instrument called Megacam on the 6.5m Magellan/Clay telescope. Gaspar Galaz (Pontifical Catholic University of Chile) and collaborators used Megacam to obtain deep optical observations of Malin 1. They then used novel noise-reduction and image-processing techniques to create this spectacular image of the spiral galaxy located roughly 1.2 billion light-years away. This new view of Malin 1 reveals details weve never before seen, including a stream within the disk that may have been caused by a past interaction between Malin 1 and another galaxy near it. Check outthe image to the rightfor a monochrome, inverted version thatmakes it a little easier to see some of Malin 1s features. To see the full original images and to learn more about what the images reveal about Malin 1, see the paper below.CitationGaspar Galaz et al 2015 ApJ 815 L29. doi:10.1088/2041-8205/815/2/L29