This object is an E5
elliptical galaxy located 90 million light years away in the constellation of Cetus at a declination of -14 degrees. The E5 designation indicates that this elliptical is long and thin (the scale ranges from E0 for round/spherical ellipticals to E7 for the thinnest). It is a magnitude 10 galaxy which spans 4.5 arc-minutes in our apparent view. This corresponds to a Milky Way like diameter of 120,000 light years.
I find processing elliptical galaxies to be very difficult. Minimal processing is required to avoid creating artifact bands in the outer star halo of the galaxy.
A 2005 paper concludes that this galaxy resulted from a merger about 4 billion years ago. There are 2 distinct stellar populations – an old massive spheroid in the center, and a young disk component around the bulge. I was hoping to find shells in this galaxy, remnants of the merger, but I did not find any. Apparently too much time has passed since the merger and any resulting shells have now dissipated.
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