This
Astrobin Debut Object is a galaxy group of 5 elliptical galaxies, called Hickson 17, located almost 1 billion light years away in the constellation of Aries at a declination of +14 degrees.
Unlike many Hickson objects, this is a true galaxy cluster and all of them are about the same distance away. It is difficult to discern whether these galaxies are interacting. Some of the star haloes seem slightly distorted but the distance makes that tough to determine.
This Hickson group is one of the dimmest and smallest out of the 100 Hickson groups. The largest and brightest galaxy, Hickson 17a, is a magnitude 16.5 galaxy. This galaxy spans 25 arc-seconds, which corresponds to a diameter of 100,000 light years.
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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