This
Astrobin Debut Object is a pair of interacting galaxies located 240 million light years in the constellation of Virgo at a declination of -4 degrees. This galaxy was classified by Dr. Arp into the interesting category of Galaxies – Appearance of Fission. While to most of us today the objects in this category would appear to be merging, Dr. Arp had an opposite view.
This is one of the few galaxy objects, like Bode’s Galaxy, nicknamed after an individual. Arp 248 is nicknamed Wild’s Triplet after the astronomer Paul Wild, who studied this object in 1953 while at Caltech.
The galaxy at the center of this image is 14 magnitude MCG-1-30-33. A star stream bridge connects it with15 magnitude MCG-1-30-32. Both galaxies span about 1.5 arc-minutes in our apparent view, which corresponds to a Milky Way-size diameter of 110,000 light years. I like the detail which is visible in the disks of both of these galaxies.
The third galaxy of this trio, 16 magnitude MCG-1-34 at upper left, does not appear to be interacting with the other two. It is about 10 million light years further away, at 250 million light years.
There is a tiny 4th galaxy visible here, behind the star stream bridge. It is the 18 magnitude yellow spiral galaxy LEDA 1065954. No distance information is available for this galaxy, which I believe is located far beyond the others in this image.
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