Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Arp 20, Gary Imm

Arp 20

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Arp 20, Gary Imm

Arp 20

Equipment

Loading...

Acquisition details

Loading...

Description

This Astrobin Debut Object is a disturbed spiral galaxy located 200 million light years away in the constellation of Taurus at a declination of +2 degrees. This 14.4 magnitude galaxy spans 1 arc-minute in our apparent view and has a diameter of 70,000 light years.

This galaxy was classified by Dr. Arp into the category of Spiral Galaxies – Three Armed. The galaxy arms are clearly disturbed. But does this galaxy actually have 3 arms, as classified by Dr. Arp? It actually looks like 2 arms to me, with the “third arm” at upper right being an extension of the arm at left as it wraps around the galaxy.

When comparing this to other undisturbed barred galaxies, it looks like this one started as a barred galaxy with an arm extending from each end of the bar, and then became disturbed by a companion cutting across the bottom right of the galaxy. Is this companion still visible, or was this a "hit and run"? We are too far away to tell whether any of the bright regions in the disk is a small companion galaxy vs. a bright star forming cluster, although the bright blue area below the core looks different from the other regions and a bit suspicious to me.

Comments