This
Astrobin Debut Object is a spiral galaxy located 120 million light years away in the constellation of Virgo at a declination of -7 degrees. It is a magnitude 12 galaxy which spans 1.5 arc-minutes in our apparent view. This corresponds to a diameter of 60,000 light years. Our view of the galaxy is about halfway between face-on and edge-on.
This object is interesting. The galaxy looks like a classic barred grand spiral galaxy, with bright ansae on each side of the bar. An outer pseudoring (R1’ type) is seen surrounding the outside of the disk.
But on the left side of the disk, towards the outside, are 3 small bright blue star clouds that may be dwarf galaxies. If so, they are small, with a length of only 6000 light years. They are identified as small galaxies in SIMBAD. The galaxy arm in that proximity looks disturbed, so perhaps they are. But why isn’t the main galaxy more disturbed? Plus, outer pseudorings usually have a hard time forming in the presence of companions. My guess is that they are dwarf galaxies which are not yet close enough to NGC 5534 yet to be having much impact.
NGC 5534 has been identified as a starburst galaxy. The star formation activity has likely been initiated by companion interaction.
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