This
Astrobin Debut Object is a galaxy group of 7 galaxies, called Hickson 76, located 0.5 billion light years away in the constellation of Serpens at a declination of +7 degrees. Unlike many Hickson objects, this is a true galaxy cluster and all of them are about the same distance away.
The brightest galaxy in each Hickson group is supposed to be designated “a”, but in this case the brightest galaxy of the group is the 14.4 magnitude elliptical galaxy Hickson 76b (NGC 5944). For a sense of scale, this galaxy is 170,000 light years in diameter.
I don’t see much disturbance in this group, which means that they are a bit too far apart from each other to be interacting.
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 Hickson galaxy groups in my
Astrobin Hickson Collection.
The lovely galaxy at lower right is the Seyfert galaxy NGC 5940, also located 0.5 billion light years away.
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