Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 1313 - VLT

This is a view of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 1313 taken with the the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile on Dec. 16, 2003 through various broad-band (B, R, z) and narrow-band filters (H-alpha, [o I], [O III]). The colour composited image was made by assigning B to the blue channel, [O I] and [O III] to the green channel, and R, z, and H-alpha to the red channel. This gives many of the nebulous shells along the outer spiral arms a yellow/red hue. The outline of the central region indicates the area observed with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys.