Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Cetus (Cet)
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Arp 251, Gary Imm
Arp 251, Gary Imm

Arp 251

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Arp 251, Gary Imm
Arp 251, Gary Imm

Arp 251

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Description

This Astrobin Debut Object is a galaxy trio located 1 billion light years away in the constellation of Cetus at a declination of -14 degrees.  In his Arp catalog, Dr. Arp classified this object into the category of Galaxies with Appearance of Fission. 

This may be the most distant Arp object, at 1 billion light years.  All 3 galaxies appear to be spirals, with 2 looking like nice grand design spirals.  The largest galaxy, the magnitude 15 2MASX J00534840-1351148, spans 30 arc-seconds in our apparent view, which corresponds to a large diameter of 170,000 light years.  The upper arm looks somewhat disturbed, so perhaps these galaxies are interacting.  

The galaxy arms of the 2 largest galaxies seem connected, but they could just be superimposed.

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