Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Draco (Dra)  ·  Contains:  NGC 3210  ·  NGC 3212  ·  NGC 3215
Arp 181, Gary Imm
Arp 181, Gary Imm

Arp 181

Arp 181, Gary Imm
Arp 181, Gary Imm

Arp 181

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Description

This object is a pair of face-on spiral galaxies located 450 million light years away in the constellation of Draco at a declination of +80 degrees. The object was classified by Dr. Arp into the category of Galaxies with Narrow Filaments. Dr. Arp considered star streams to be “filaments”.

Arp 181 consists of two face-on spiral galaxies - magnitude 14 NGC 3212 to the right and magnitude 13 NGC 3215 to the left. NGC 3212 spans 45 arc-seconds and is 100,000 light years in diameter. NGC 3215 is a bit larger, at 130,000 light years.

Both galaxies show some impact from gravitational disturbance, primarily a faint star stream heading right from NGC 3212. Most interesting to me is that NGC 3212 is primarily blue while NGC 3215 is primarily yellow, perhaps indicating that NGC 3212 is undergoing more star formation kicked off by the interaction.

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