Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Sextans (Sex)  ·  Contains:  PGC 1046036  ·  PGC 1046387  ·  PGC 1046825  ·  PGC 27817  ·  PGC 27825  ·  PGC 27828
Arp 253, Gary Imm
Arp 253, Gary Imm

Arp 253

Arp 253, Gary Imm
Arp 253, Gary Imm

Arp 253

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Description

This Astrobin Debut Object, seen in the image just above center, is a pair of 15th magnitude edge-on interacting galaxies located 95 million light years away in the constellation of Sextans at a declination of -5 degrees. Each galaxy spans 1 arc-minute in our apparent view, which corresponds to a diameter of 30,000 light years.

This galaxy was classified by Dr. Arp into the category of Galaxies – Appearance of Fission. An interesting and questionable categorization, since these 2 galaxies are likely merging and not separating. A faint star stream appears to connect these 2 galaxies. Many blue star clusters are seen throughout the disks. I like how they both seem to conform to the same arcing curvature. I also like the faint star streams which seem to be emanating upwards from the outside edges of the 2 disks.

Towards the bottom of the image is an equally interesting object, MCG-01-25-033. This galaxy is a bit closer to us at 90 million light years, and has a diameter of 40,000 light years. The galaxy appears very disturbed. A companion could be lurking just above the core, but it is hard to tell.

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