Revealing the galactic secrets of NGC 1316

Countless galaxies vie for attention in this dazzling image of the Fornax Cluster, some appearing only as pinpricks of light while others dominate the foreground. One of these is the lenticular galaxy NGC 1316. The turbulent past of this much-studied galaxy has left it with a delicate structure of loops, arcs and rings that astronomers have now imaged in greater detail than ever before with the VLT Survey Telescope.

This image was processed with the VST-Tube data reduction program.

Note that the bright stars in this image are surrounded by round features, some orange and some pale blue or white, that are caused by reflections within the telescope and camera optics. These artifacts are not real celestial objects.