Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Draco (Dra)  ·  Contains:  NGC 6361
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Arp 124, Gary Imm
Arp 124, Gary Imm

Arp 124

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Arp 124, Gary Imm
Arp 124, Gary Imm

Arp 124

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Description

This Astrobin Debut Object is a near edge-on spiral galaxy and its companion, located 180 million light years away in the constellation of Draco at a declination of +61 degrees. In his Arp catalog, Dr. Arp classified this object into the category of Elliptical Galaxies Close to and Perturbing Spirals.



The spiral galaxy is NGC 6361. This magnitude 13 galaxy spans 2 arc-minutes in our apparent view, which corresponds to a Milky Way like diameter of 120,000 light years.

This galaxy has several interesting features. A blue star region sits on the left edge of the disk. A wavy dark dust lane extends around the outer disk. The galaxy looks disturbed enough that the idea of a companion is a possibility.

Immediately below and right of NGC 6361 is the companion galaxy, MCG+10-25-003. It is about 25,000 light years in diameter. Measurements show it to be about the same distance away as NGC 6361.

There is no way to know for sure whether these galaxies are interacting, but my guess is that they are. There is a hint of a star stream bridge between the 2 galaxies.

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