Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Aquarius (Aqr)
Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Arp 295, Gary Imm
Arp 295, Gary Imm

Arp 295

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Arp 295, Gary Imm
Arp 295, Gary Imm

Arp 295

Equipment

Loading...

Acquisition details

Loading...

Description

This object is a pair of interacting galaxies located over 300 million light years away in the constellation of Aquarius. The edge-on spiral galaxy on the left is PGC 72139, while the face-on sprial galaxy on the right is PGC 72155.

I love star streams. So I thought it would be fun to identify the longest star stream in the sky that can be imaged with a backyard telescope. I couldn't find documentation to answer this question, but I think this object is the clear winner. On Astrobin here, I have a compilation of objects I have imaged which have distinct star streams. Most of these star streams are on the order of 100,000 light years. The star stream of the Antennae Galaxies (Arp 244) is impressive, with a total end-to-end length of 360,000 light years. But this object (Arp 295) is more than twice as long as that, approaching an incredible 800,000 light years! I find the structure of this faint stream to be incredible, how it flows smoothly between and to each side of both galaxies. The scale is incomprehensible.

The two galaxies themselves have quite a bit of structure and color, surprising for objects that are over 300 million light years away. Each galaxy is larger than our Milky Way. Both galaxies show the effects of gravitational interaction. The core of the left galaxy is shifted to the left, while in the right galaxy bright blue star-forming clusters are seen on the lower left side.

Numerous other interesting tiny galaxies are visible in the surrounding star field.

Comments