Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Orion (Ori)
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Arp 52, Gary Imm
Arp 52, Gary Imm

Arp 52

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Arp 52, Gary Imm
Arp 52, Gary Imm

Arp 52

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Description

This Astrobin Debut Object, also known as CGCG 421-27, is a tiny spiral galaxy located 390 million light years away in the constellation of Orion at a declination of +4 degrees. This magnitude 16 galaxy spans 35 arc-seconds in our apparent view, which corresponds to a diameter of 70,000 light years.

A galaxy’s designation says a lot about the type of object it is. Messier galaxies are showcase objects. NGC galaxies are bright and interesting. IC galaxies start to involve more obscure objects. UGC galaxies are even more faint and rarely imaged. PGC galaxies are even tougher to image. MCG galaxies are only for the most hardcore imagers. CGCG galaxies? Well, CGCG galaxies are scraping the proverbial bottom of the galaxy barrel. CGCG stands for the Catalog of Galaxies and Clusters of Galaxies and is the deepest of the early surveys.

This galaxy was classified by Dr. Arp into the category of Spiral Galaxies with Small, High Surface Brightness Companions on Arms. But is the small stellar like object just above and right of the core a companion, a distant galaxy, or a star? It looks like a small foreground star to me. There is some interesting local detail present in the galaxy surrounding the star, but I still think it is just a star and not a galaxy companion.

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