Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Ursa Major (UMa)
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Arp 97, Gary Imm
Arp 97, Gary Imm

Arp 97

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Arp 97, Gary Imm
Arp 97, Gary Imm

Arp 97

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Description

This Astrobin Debut Object is a pair of magnitude 16 interacting galaxies located in the constellation of Ursa Major at a declination of +31 degrees. In his Arp catalog, Dr. Arp classified this object into the category of Spiral Galaxies with Elliptical Galaxy Companions on Arms.

The bottom spiral galaxy is MCG+05-29-010. The upper elliptical galaxy is 2MASX J12054552+3104444. Data indicates that these 2 galaxies are both about 320 million light years away from us.

The spiral galaxy spans 1.3 arc-minutes in our apparent view, which corresponds to a Milky Way like diameter of 120,000 light years. I love how the star stream of the upper arm seems to be sucked directly into the core of the elliptical galaxy. Disturbance of the spiral is indicated by the reverse curvature of the upper arm and the wider star stream section where the upper arm leaves the core. I believe that these 2 galaxies are interacting.

The small edge-on galaxy (MCG+05-29-012) just below and left of Arp 97 is also about the same distance away.

A few other highlights of this field of view are the ring galaxy at the left edge and the V-shaped galaxy cluster at the lower left corner.

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