Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Coma Berenices (Com)
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Arp 260, Gary Imm
Arp 260, Gary Imm

Arp 260

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Arp 260, Gary Imm
Arp 260, Gary Imm

Arp 260

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Description

This Astrobin Debut Object is a pair of interacting galaxies located 340 million light years away in the constellation of Coma Berenices at a declination of +16 degrees. In his Arp catalog, Dr. Arp classified this object into the category of Galaxies with Irregular Clumps.

The larger galaxy at lower right is UGC 7230. This barred grand design spiral galaxy spans 1 arc-minute in our apparent view, which corresponds to a Milky Way like diameter of 110,000 light years. The white core contrasts with the 2 strong blue arms. The galaxy appears disturbed, with a blue star region just above the core and a star stream fan below the core, extending down.

The source of the disturbance is likely the beautiful small blue spiral galaxy just above and left, galaxy 2MASX J12133956+1607334. The 2 strong galaxy arms look to be twisted like a corkscrew. Data shows that these 2 galaxies are about the same distance away from us and are each magnitude 15.



Many small galaxies are visible in the lower half of the image.

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