Image: The twin galaxies NGC 4496A and NGC 4496B

NGC 4496 in the constellation Virgo consists of two spiral galaxies, NGC 4496A (upper large galaxy) and NGC 4496B (lower galaxy). They are in the same line of sight from Earth but located at quite different distances, and they are not gravitationally interacting.

This image is a color composite created from the g (green, 470 nanometers), r (red, 630 nanometers), and i (infrared, 760 nanometers) bands. As the default RGB color composite used in many HSC images, the g, r, and i bands are displayed in blue, green, and red, respectively. The green spots along the spiral arms represent H-alpha emission at a wavelength of 656.3 nanometers in red color, originating from massive star-forming regions.