This
Astrobin Debut Object is a pair of galaxies located in the constellation of Serpens at a declination of +19 degrees. This may be the most obscure Arp object that I have imaged. Little information is available on any of the galaxies in this field of view.
In his
Arp catalog, Dr. Arp classified this object into the category of Galaxies with Adjacent Loops. Dr. Arp’s notes indicate that seeing was poor for his image.
The large spiral at left in Arp 218 is the magnitude 15 galaxy MCG+03-40-057. Located 680 million light years away, it spans about 0.5 arc-minutes in our apparent view and has a Milky Way size diameter of 120,000 light years. This galaxy has an amazing structure. It looks like it is in the midst of a late stage merger.
Within Arp 218, the odd comet-style galaxy on the right is the magnitude 18 galaxy LEDA 1564508. No distance information is available for this galaxy.
Several other interesting galaxies spice up the background of this image. At upper left, the pair of galaxies (UGC 10084) is located 580 million light years away. The large yellow lenticular galaxy is 150,000 light years in diameter and contrasts with the adjacent blue spiral. Just to the right of this pair, the pretty barred spiral near upper center (MCG+03-40-058) is also 580 million light years away.
The interesting spiral at lower left (UGC 10085) is 450 million light years away. It is a large galaxy about 140,000 light years in diameter, with
VV rows and 6 stubby arms around the circumference.
Finally, I expanded the framing a bit to include the star asterisms on the left edge, which I found to be intriguing.
Comments