As we dig deeper on our journey into the Arp catalog, it is time to get our hands dirty over the next few days with some tiny obscure faint objects.
This
Astrobin Debut Object is located 400 million light years away in the constellation of Bootes at a declination of +23 degrees. In his
Arp catalog, Dr. Arp classified this object into the category of Spiral Galaxies with Low Surface Brightness Companions on Arms.
At the center of the image is the barred spiral galaxy LEDA 200317. This magnitude 16 galaxy spans 1 arc-minute in our apparent view, which corresponds to a Milky Way like diameter of 120,000 light years. 2 bright ansae sections are seen, on either side of the extended bar, although the bottom one is a bit misaligned.
The tiny stellar-like object just slightly to the lower right of LEDA 200317, at the end of its long arm to the right, is MCG+09-23-064b. Dr. Arp considered this object to be a companion galaxy, but I am not so sure about that even though SIMBAD gives it a galaxy designation. It looks like it could be a star cloud within the large galaxy. I don't see as much deformation in that area as I would expect if it was a galaxy.
The spiral galaxy to the lower left is UGC 9178. Data shows these 2 spiral galaxies to be at the same distance. UGC 9178 has been disturbed to the point that the disk looks like 1 strong arm. I believe that this galaxy could be a companion of LEDA 200317.
The faint galaxy at upper right, MCG+09-23-060, is also at the same distance as the 2 above spiral galaxies. It looks slightly disturbed and could be interacting as well.
So, I think we may be looking at 3 interacting galaxies here. Whether or not the central galaxy has a companion is up for debate.
According to SIMBAD, most of the faint objects in the background are either distant galaxies or quasars.
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