Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Libra (Lib)
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PGC 53134, Gary Imm
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PGC 53134

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
PGC 53134, Gary Imm
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PGC 53134

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Description

This Astrobin Debut Object, known as both PGC 53134 and UGCA 396, is a faint disturbed barred spiral galaxy located 50 million light years away in the constellation of Libra at a declination of -4 degrees.   The galaxy is 3 arc-minutes wide, which corresponds to an actual diameter of 45,000 light years.

So does this object consist of one, two, three, or more galaxies?

The object above and right of PGC 53134 looks like a distant barred spiral galaxy to me. SIMBAD labels it as a separate galaxy (LEDA 1069739) but gives no distance.

The object below and right of PGC 53134 is also labelled as a separate galaxy (LEDA 1069566) by SIMBAD. It is about the right size to be a companion dwarf galaxy, somewhere between 5,000 and 10,00 light years long. But it looks to me that it could also be a star cloud towards the end of the right arm of PGC 53134. The star stream between them is very continuous.

Above and left of center is another series of star clusters which seems like an extension of the opposite arm of PGC 53134.

My belief is that we are looking at 3 galaxies here in total - PGC 53134 and a companion dwarf galaxy, plus an unrelated distant background spiral. I hope to return to this object someday to add integration time and perhaps gain a better understanding of this object.

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