This obscure
Astrobin Debut Object is a distorted spiral galaxy located 0.5 billion light years away in the constellation of Pisces at a declination of +10 degrees. The main bright section of this galaxy spans 35 arc-seconds in our apparent view, which corresponds to a diameter of 80,000 light years. The looping star stream extends for over 300,000 light years.
What is causing the disturbance? I think there could be two possibilities. The object itself looks like it could be 2 merging galaxies, similar to the Antennae Galaxies. In this case, the looping star stream could simply be a remnant of the interaction of the galaxies.
Another possibility is that the faint object seen at lower left is a dwarf galaxy. If it is the same distance away as UGC 829, it is 15,000 light years in diameter and could be responsible for the disruption. Studies have shown that small galaxies, even at just 10% of the mass of its companion, can create large disruptions.
Or perhaps both of these possibilities are occurring simultaneously and there are actually 3 galaxies seen here! It is fun to speculate.
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