This
Astrobin Debut Object is a galaxy group of 4 galaxies, called Hickson 28, located in the constellation of Eridanus at a declination of -11 degrees.
This is an interesting group. Three of the galaxies (28a, 28b, and 28c) form a true cluster that is 0.5 billion light years away. Galaxy 28d is much further away, at 1.4 billion light years.
The largest and brightest galaxy, Hickson 28a is a magnitude 15.3 edge-on spiral galaxy.
It spans 50 arc-seconds, which corresponds to a Milky Way size diameter of 120,000 light years. The other galaxies at the same distance, the elliptical galaxy Hickson 28b and the lenticular galaxy Hickson 28c, are each a bit smaller than 28a. I don’t see much disturbance here, which likely means that these 3 are too far apart from each other to be interacting.
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The Hickson catalog is a collection of 100 galaxy groups, established by Paul Hickson in 1982. Hickson compact galaxy groups are tightly spaced and somewhat isolated from other galaxies. A typical Hickson group has 4 galaxies, but some have up to 8. You can see more about Hickson galaxy groups in my
Astrobin Hickson Collection.
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