Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Draco (Dra)
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Arp 188, Gary Imm
Arp 188, Gary Imm

Arp 188

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Arp 188, Gary Imm
Arp 188, Gary Imm

Arp 188

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Description

This object, also known as the Tadpole Galaxy and UGC 10214, is a barred spiral deformed galaxy located 430 million light years away in the constellation of Draco. The apparent size to us of the main spiral is less than 1 arc-minute. This corresponds to about 100,000 light years, which is similar to the diameter of our Milky Way galaxy. The "tail" extends for 2.3 more arc-minutes, equivalent to almost 300,000 light years. The galaxy appears almost edge-on to us, at an inclination of about 70 degrees.

The deformed galaxy arms and long tail are due to an interaction with a small galaxy. That small galaxy is visible in the image as the small blue core in the right section of the main galaxy disk.

Numerous bright blue star clusters are visible in the tail. The brightest blue region in the center of the tail is a super star cluster (SSC), with a mass of 1,300,000 solar masses. Scientists have determined that these SSC stars are "only" about 5 million years old, much younger than the estimated age of the tail itself (150 million years).

Many other small galaxies are visible in the image background.

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