This
Astrobin Debut Object is a small group of galaxies located 360 million light years away in the constellation of Corona Borealis at a declination of +28 degrees.
The largest galaxy in the image is UGC 10273, the edge-on spiral galaxy at center. This object spans 1.5 arc-minutes in our apparent view, which corresponds to a large diameter of 160,000 light years. I like the changes in color along the galaxy, from blue to white to orange, then back to blue and finally white. Also, the galaxy seems interrupted in many places by dark bands, which I assume are dust lanes.
Just below and left is the orange small spiral galaxy LEDA 1831614, about the same distance away. I believe that there is interaction with the main object because of the faint star streams that are visible between them, but I can’t be 100% sure. It seems like this might be a rare case of an early stage merger of 2 galaxies which are both nearly edge-on to our view.
Further to the left is the lenticular or elliptical galaxy LEDA 1832284, also at a similar distance. It seems to be unaffected by gravitational interaction.
The big question to me is: What are the 5 small objects annotated with question marks on the mouseover? They don’t look like distant galaxies to me. They seem to be faintly connected with the main object by star streams. My best guess is that they are fragments of the other 2 larger galaxies, torn away by the interaction.
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