This
Astrobin Debut Object is a galaxy trio located 250 million light years away in the constellation of Pegasus at a declination of +21 degrees. The 3 galaxies here are all about the same distance away and look like they could be interacting. All of the galaxies have a surprising amount of detail for their distance.
The left galaxy of the trio is Mrk 331. Markarian (Mrk) galaxies have cores with excessive amounts of ultraviolet emissions compared with other galaxies. The galaxies in this catalogue include Seyfert galaxies, starburst galaxies, active galactic nuclei, and quasars. Dr. Benjamin Markarian started studying these types of galaxies in 1963.
Mrk 331 is a magnitude 14 galaxy that some believe to be 2 galaxies in the process of merging. I do not think that is the case here – the “tails” here appear to be undisturbed and look to me to be typical of the arms of a normal spiral galaxy. Plus, the Hubble image of the mouseover doesn’t show signs of a merger. The galaxy spans 0.8 arc-minutes in our apparent view. This corresponds to a diameter of 60,000 light years.
The right galaxy of the trio is the near edge-on spiral UGC 12812. This galaxy is 1 arc-minute long and 75,000 light years in diameter. Blue star-forming regions are seen throughout the disk.
LEDA 72622 is the center galaxy, 40,000 light years in diameter. This galaxy looks like it could be a
Magellanic galaxy.
Numerous smaller galaxies are seen throughout the background. The small galaxy to the right of the central trio is galaxy [WGB2006] 234842+20170 d, much further distant at 1 billion light years away.
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