Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Virgo (Vir)  ·  Contains:  NGC 5560  ·  NGC 5566  ·  NGC 5569
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Arp 286 (2018), Gary Imm
Arp 286 (2018), Gary Imm

Arp 286 (2018)

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Arp 286 (2018), Gary Imm
Arp 286 (2018), Gary Imm

Arp 286 (2018)

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Description

This object is a trio of galaxies located 80 million light years away in the constellation of Virgo.

The largest galaxy is NGC 5566, 50% larger than our Milky Way with a diameter of 150,000 light years. This barred spiral galaxy has broad sweeping arms and subtle but clearly visible dark dust lanes. The dust lane to the right of the galaxy is more pronounced than the symmetric lane on the other side. The galaxy has a yellowish tint, likely due to its age, in contrast to the bluish tint of its neighbor on the right, NGC 5569. The third galaxy, NGC 5560, has both colors - yellow in the core and blue in the arms.

Both NGC 5566 and NGC 5560 appear distorted due to the gravitational pull between the galaxies. The arms of both galaxies do not lie in their respective galaxy disk planes. A faint stream of stars is visible extending up from NGC 5560 towards the core of NGC 5566.

It is not clear to me whether the smallest galaxy is interacting with the other two, but literature sources say that all three galaxies are interacting.

I am surprised that I don't see any pinkish star formation areas anywhere amongst the trio. Such areas are typically found when galaxies are interacting. Perhaps the galaxy interaction is fairly recent, or they are not interacting as strongly as they appear.

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    Arp 286 (2018), Gary Imm
    Original
  • Arp 286 (2018), Gary Imm
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Description: Comparison to Original Arp Image

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Arp 286 (2018), Gary Imm