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NGC 4038 & NGC 4039
The Antennae Galaxy
Imaged by Martin S. Ferlito copyright
Gstar-EX Integrating Video Camera
Information provided by seds.org
The interacting pair of galaxies, NGC 4038 and 4039, was discovered by William Herschel on February 7, 1785, and first classified as a planetary nebula. His son, John Herschel, cataloged them under separate numbers, h 1052 and h 1053, in his catalog of 1833. From this catalog, he took them over into his General Catalog as GC 2670 and GC 2671 in 1864, from where they found their way in Dreyer's NGC.
