Disturbed spiral galaxy in the Abell 496 field

This image shows a galaxy with a strange structure in the Abell 496 Field. This image is reproduced on a logarithmic intensity scale to better show the structure of the objects. At this scale, the individual pixels in the original frames are visible. The sky field measures 0.8 x 0.8 arcmin 2. North is up and East left.

The WFI image of Abell 496 was obtained in blue light (B-band) and corresponds to a total integration time of 7560 seconds, split into a number of exposures lasting between 600 and 1200 seconds. The faintest objects just detectable in this image have a B-magnitude of about 26.5.