This object is a spiral galaxy located 75 million light years away in the constellation of Hercules at a declination of +43 degrees. This 12.5 magnitude galaxy spans 2 arc-minutes in our apparent view, which corresponds to an actual diameter of 50,000 light years.
This is a very disturbed disk, which I love to see and examine. It is hard for me to visualize what is going on here. It looks more like a shrimp than a galaxy. The galaxy seems to be almost edge-on, with a cool star stream ring. Faint star streams extend up and to the right in 2 parallel streams. The core is a mess - are those 2 small bright blue stars superimposed in front of the core, or are those remnants of the core?
To the left is a small dwarf galaxy (PGC 2204813). Could this be the reason for the disturbance of NGC 6239? The one distance estimate for it does not put it close, so perhaps not.
As unique as this object appears, it is surprisingly similar in structure to
NGC 812.
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