This tiny Arp object, also known as UGC 4881, consists of two merging galaxies located 550 million light years away in the constellation of Lynx at a declination of +44 degrees. This combined object is larger than our Milky Way, with a span of about 140,000 light years.
This object is tiny in apparent size at about 45 arc-seconds. It was first given the nickname, "The Grasshopper", by the esteemed astrophysicist Dr. Boris Vorontsov-Velyaminov in a 1977 paper. Despite all of the time I have I spent with this object, I still don't think it looks much like a grasshopper. At least, not like the ones we have where I live. It looks more like a shrimp to me.
The two galaxy cores are seen as the two brightest yellowish regions in the object. The cores of each merging galaxy are separated and distinct, but the disks of the galaxies have started to merge. Intense star formation is occurring, as seen by the bright blue line of clusters along the grasshopper's "tail". I think that this object is similar in structure to the famous Antennae galaxies, but our view in this case hides the 2nd tail behind the galaxy cores.
The 3 other faint galaxies visible near Arp 55, 2 above left and 1 above right, are at different distances and not likely to be interacting with Arp 55.
This is the 2nd image of this object on Astrobin - the 1st was posted by myself 5 years ago (
here).
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