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IC 414, Gary Imm

IC 414

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Description

This Astrobin Debut Object is a tiny spiral ring galaxy located 200 million light years away in the constellation of Orion at a declination of +3 degrees. This 15 magnitude galaxy spans 30 arc-seconds in our apparent view, which corresponds to a diameter of 35,000 light years.

The core of this galaxy is offset towards the bottom. I love the ring, which is somewhat angular and discontinuous. The ring has a slight blue tint towards the top, possibly indicating star formation. The galaxy disk extends above the ring at the top, but not left or right, and only slightly at the bottom.

What is causing this disturbance? There is no distance information available for the edge-on spiral to the left or for the elliptical galaxy below left. The spiral looks like a distant galaxy. As with many odd DSOs, the mystery of its formation will likely remain for a long time.

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