Spiral pattern in Virgo dwarf galaxy

The deep R-band CCD image of IC3328 (left; rendered in "negative" with dark objects and a bright background), obtained with FORS1 at VLT ANTU, illustrates the overall morphology of this galaxy that was classified as a dwarf elliptical galaxy: a quite smooth radially waning light distribution with a central nucleus. The total integration time of this composite image is 20 min with a seeing of 0.6 arcsec. After removal of the axis-symmetrical part of the light from the galaxy by a special image processing algorithm, the "residual" image reveals a remarkable 2-armed spiral structure (right). The field is 4 x 4 arcmin 2 ; North is up and east is left.