I love galaxy loops and I am always looking for candidates to add to my
Galaxy Loop Collection. I am thrilled to add this
Astrobin Debut Object, located 0.5 billion light years away in the constellation of Leo at a declination of +8 degrees. It is a magnitude 14.1 galaxy whose disk spans 0.7 arc-minutes in our apparent view. This corresponds to a diameter of 100,000 light years. The star stream loop is twice that diameter.
This galaxy is classified as a E3 elliptical galaxy but it looks more like a deformed lenticular galaxy to me.
The star stream loop is fascinating, with the denser section jetting out left at about 8 o’clock from the main disk. A small but bright condensation is seen in the stream shortly after it leaves the main halo. The stream extends out and then up, where there is another larger and fainter condensation. The stream then bends back right to reconnect with the top of the main disk.
What is causing this? It could be a dwarf galaxy which is now almost fully absorbed, save for the 2 condensations mentioned above. Or perhaps it is due to one of the 3 surrounding dwarf galaxies identified in the mouseover. All of these galaxies are at the same distance as IC 658. These small galaxies range in size from 10,000 to 30,000 light years in diameter. My eyes seem to see some faint star streams associated with the closest of these 3 small galaxies to IC 658 (just below it), so perhaps that is the disturbance culprit, but it is impossible to know for sure.
Numerous other galaxies are seen in the background, most too far from IC 658 to be interacting.
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