This
Arp object, also known as NGC 4038 & 4039 as well as Caldwell 60 & 61, is a pair of colliding galaxies located 60 million light years away in the constellation of Corvus at a declination of -19 degrees.
I find this object to be one of the most visually fascinating of all of the deep sky objects and the best example in the sky of 2 merging galaxies. The galaxies have been deformed so severely by their gravitational interaction that it is hard to even recognize the original shape of each galaxy. The cores of the two galaxies can be seen in the two small orange-tinted areas, one near the center of each head, located at about the same vertical height in the image.
The starburst phase typically associated with interacting galaxies is clearly seen in the many pinkish star formation areas of each galaxy. My favorite part of this image is the wonderful color diversity, which is unusual for a galaxy image. I see so many colors - the usual blues and pinks, but also varying shades of yellow, orange, brown, gray and white.
The two long tidal tails have a combined length of almost 400,000 light years. The long tails in this image are a great example of how tidal interactions from approaching galaxies tend to cause the tails to flow out away from each other.
I have classified this object into my collection of
M3 Galaxy Merger Objects, which are merged galaxy pairs which have 2 close cores. M3 is the
standard designation for such objects. This object also is the prototype for my
Antennae Galaxy Collection.
My previous image of this object, shown
here, was taken in 2019 using my Tak130 refractor. That refractor has a focal length of 1000 mm vs. the focal length of 2800 mm for the C11 EdgeHD of this image.
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