This
Astrobin Debut Object is a pair of merging galaxies located 0.4 billion light years away in the constellation of Leo at a declination of +12 degrees. This object was classified by Dr. Arp into the category of Galaxies – Appearance of Fission. Dr. Arp believed that objects such as this one showed galaxies that were splitting, not merging, although the prevalent belief today is that such galaxies are merging.
Of these 2 merging galaxies, MCG+02-24-014 is to the left and UGC 5044 is to the right. The overall object is about 200,000 light years in diameter. It is a beautiful mess of 2 close cores with extended and warping star streams, together with a possible star cluster and dust band.
2 other galaxies are also seen near Arp 237 - 2MASX J09273421+1218053 is to the upper right and NVSS J092734+121613 is to the lower right. Together, these 4 galaxies comprise the small galaxy group Hickson 38. As you might guess from examining this cluster visually, the upper right galaxy is much more distant than the other 3. It is at a distance of 1.1 billion light years away.
A fascinating galaxy (2MASX J09281273+1214093) is seen to the lower left. It is about 1.4 billion light years away and is very large, at about 175,000 light years in diameter. Spiral galaxies rarely get this large, and indeed this galaxy looks like it may be a strongly shelled elliptical. I wish we were at least a billion light years closer to this one for a better look.
Most of the other objects in the background are galaxies, not stars.
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