Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Ursa Major (UMa)  ·  Contains:  NGC 3916  ·  NGC 3921
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NGC 3921 - Arp 24 in UMa., astroeyes
NGC 3921 - Arp 24 in UMa.
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NGC 3921 - Arp 24 in UMa.

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
NGC 3921 - Arp 24 in UMa., astroeyes
NGC 3921 - Arp 24 in UMa.
Powered byPixInsight

NGC 3921 - Arp 24 in UMa.

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Description

Here's a quite interesting galaxy in UMa. Nearly 300 MLy distant, magnitude 12.6, Arp 224 or NGC 3921 is a galactic merger actually in the process of taking place. The merger began around 800 million years ago and will continue until the 2 components complete the merger into a giant elliptical. There are a number of external loops of stars and jets that have been produced by the interaction and these will presumable fall back into the final structure. It would be interesting to see the finished article in another 800 million years or so.

There are a myriad of faint galaxies in this image, many at immense distances. One of the brighter is ngc 3916, possibly paired with 3921, magnitude 14.8, type Sb, to the Northwest of ngc 3921. Another is MCG +09-19-213, the little mag. 14.2 spiral almost due west of ngc 3921. The tiny spiral ~4arcmins. east of 3921 is mag. 17.3 and the little elliptical 2 arcmin northeast is mag. 15.3. The tiny spiral 1 arcmin west is mag.15.2.

My image consists of 30 x 120second exposures and 20 x 180 sec, (total 2hours) acquired and processed in AstroArt3. Transparency here has not been good recently due to haze/smog, so not a bad result though the background is a little rough in places.

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    NGC 3921 - Arp 24 in UMa., astroeyes
    Original
  • NGC 3921 - Arp 24 in UMa., astroeyes
    B

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NGC 3921 - Arp 24 in UMa., astroeyes