Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Leo (Leo)
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UGC 6614, Gary Imm
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UGC 6614

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
UGC 6614, Gary Imm
Powered byPixInsight

UGC 6614

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Description

This object is a dim face-on ring galaxy located 300 million light years away in the constellation of Leo at a declination of +17 degrees. The outer reaches of this 14.4 magnitude galaxy spans 3 arc-minutes in our apparent view, which corresponds to a huge diameter of 300,000 light years.  The small inner bright elliptical portion is about 50,000 ly in diameter.

This is a very dim distant galaxy, as you might expect for a galaxy whose designation begins with a "U". It is the first Giant Low Surface Brightness Galaxy (GLSBG - see paper by Das, 2013) that I have imaged. It has a bright core and inner section, an inner ring about the same size as our galaxy, and an outer ring that is much, much bigger and dimmer. Typical of a GLSB galaxy, no structure is visible in terms of bright star clusters or Ha regions. Use the "Inverted Monochrome" image menu option above to see the galaxy outline in more detail.

Although the disk is dim in this galaxy, the core is unusually bright. Studies indicate that it is active in X-rays as in a Seyfert galaxy, indicating a likely supermassive black hole at the center.

This has been one of the hardest galaxies for me to image. The combination of the dim object and the bright 8.5 magnitude star ( HD 101195) to the lower right makes this object a challenge to process. I need to collect more time in the future to improve the image quality for this interesting object.

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