This object is a tiny pair of merging galaxies located 90 million light years away in the constellation of Leo Minor at a declination of +33 degrees. NGC 3395 is on the right, while NGC 3396 is on the left. As usual, north is up in this image.
This object was classified by Dr. Arp into the category of Double Galaxies with Connected Arms, which is one of my favorite categories. The objects in this category, Arp 269 through Arp 274, including the
Rose and the
Cocoon.
NGC 3395 is a near face-on grand spiral galaxy. This magnitude 12 galaxy spans almost 2 arc-minutes in our apparent view, which corresponds to a diameter of 50,000 light years. Its 2 strong galaxy arms are distinct and show characteristic
Vorontsov-Velyaminov rows.
NGC 3396 is a near edge-on spiral galaxy. This magnitude 13 galaxy spans 1.3 arc-minutes in our apparent view, which corresponds to a diameter of 35,000 light years.
As usual with interacting galaxies, star streams are seen extending beyond the galaxy disks and bridging the gap between the galaxies. The interaction has kickoff a frenzy of star formation, seen as blue star clusters and purple HII regions in the disks.
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