Trio of Galaxies (NGC 5981, NGC 5982 and NGC 5985)

This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. The edge-on galaxy NGC 5981 (top), the elliptical galaxy NGC 5982 (middle) and the spiral galaxy NGC 5985 (bottom) form a distinct trio. It is not clear if or when these galaxies might merge with each other. But there is already evidence that NGC 5982 has already merged with one or more smaller galaxies in the recent past. The image was generated with observations in the B (blue), V (green), and I (red) filters. In this image, North is left, East is down.