Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Draco (Dra)  ·  Contains:  IC 1291
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IC 1291, Gary Imm
IC 1291, Gary Imm

IC 1291

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
IC 1291, Gary Imm
IC 1291, Gary Imm

IC 1291

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Description

This Astrobin Debut Object is a low surface brightness galaxy located 90 million light years away in the constellation of Draco at a declination of +49 degrees. This galaxy spans 1.5 arc-minutes in our apparent view, which corresponds to a length of 40,000 light years.

I love the unique look of this galaxy. Looking past the bright foreground stars, a 3-dimensional corkscrew structure contains numerous bright blue star cluster regions. The color of the galaxy suggests that star formation has happened recently.

The disturbed shape means that possible interaction with another galaxy has occurred. The most obvious candidate is the small dwarf galaxy to the upper left, LEDA 62055. It is not very big - 10,000 light years - and not exactly at the same distance, but SIMBAD indicates that it is the companion galaxy so I will go with that.

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