One of my favorite systems--so much going on in this Hubble image the umbilical cord of blue stars between the galaxies is striking. However, now they think the lower galaxy is just coincidentally placed just at the right spot to make it look like its connected to the upper galaxy pair. they feel that it is simply a background galaxy...a figment of happenstance. From Wikipedia
"As the pair of galaxies in the north gravitationally interact with each other, tidally-stripped gas from both galaxies is draped over the southern galaxy as a series of blobs, which are fueling a burst of star formation.[4] While it has long been believed to be interacting with the northern galaxy, images from the Hubble Space Telescope clearly show that this stream of material is actually superimposed on the southern galaxy.[5] This suggests that this third galaxy may actually lie in the background. Due to this uncertainty, the third galaxy may not be involved in the interaction."
Here is the link to the APOD of this data...I did not see it until after I processed the image. Granted, mine might be a bit over saturated, but theirs is a bit wan and under saturated IMO! (I can't get the link to turn blue and work by clicking, so you have to paste in your browser).
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1903/Arp194_HubbleSchmidt_1494.jpgAcquisition NASA/HST
Processing Rodd Dryfoos
Comments