Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Ursa Major (UMa)
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Arp 62, Gary Imm
Arp 62, Gary Imm

Arp 62

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Arp 62, Gary Imm
Arp 62, Gary Imm

Arp 62

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Description

This Astrobin Debut Object is a pair of interacting galaxies located 300 million light years away in the constellation of Ursa Major at a declination of +43 degrees. In his Arp catalog, Dr. Arp classified this object into the category of Spiral Galaxies with High Surface Brightness Companions on Arms.

The large spiral is UGC 6865. This magnitude 15 grand design spiral galaxy spans 1.5 arc-minutes in our apparent view, which corresponds to a Milky Way like diameter of 130,000 light years. Some disturbance is seen in the arms, in terms of of bright star clusters and a lopsided disk.

At the bottom end of UGC 6865 is the companion elliptical galaxy MCG+07-25-002b, about 50,000 light years in diameter. Data shows it to be about the same distance away as UGC 6865. I find its asymmetric star halo to be unique and fascinating, appearing to bridge the two galaxies. It looks to me like these two are interacting, although as always there is no way to know for sure.

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