This
Astrobin Debut Object, also known as UGC 12856, is a pair of superimposed galaxies located in the constellation of Pegasus at a declination of +17 degrees. In his
Arp catalog, Dr. Arp classified this object into the odd category of Galaxies with Irregular Clumps. That category never sounded quite scientific to me.
This is certainly a strange galaxy. When I first saw the processed result, I was troubled when I saw the “X-like” artifact at the right end of the galaxy. Galaxies just don’t look like that normally. Well, after some research, I discovered that this is not one galaxy, but 2 galaxies, so that X is not an artifact but the result of seeing one galaxy superimposed on top of another.
LEDA 72977 comprises the central bright region and is about 85 million light years away and 40,000 light years in length. This small galaxy falls into that interesting size range between 25,000 and 50,000 light years, where I see so many galaxies that I call
Irregular Spirals. They seem to me to be galaxies that are transition from irregular to spiral shape.
Behind it, on the right end, is LEDA 72978, which is about 100 million light years away and which is much smaller in length. The exact boundaries of each small blue dwarf galaxy are difficult to determine at this time.
This is yet another example of how difficult it is for us to understand these galaxies when our view is limited to one viewing perspective.
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