The "Star shape"
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by
myrobishow
Why galaxy get this shape?
Posted
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by
JeanTate
in response to myrobishow's comment.
Welcome to Galaxy Zoo, myrobishow!
The really spectacular thing is actually a star; the funny glow shape is caused by light bouncing around inside the camera (the four 'compass points' are diffraction spikes, caused by the vanes which support the secondary mirror in the telescope).
The photometric pipeline really, really messed up here; there is a very small, faint galaxy (or perhaps it's a star) in the center of the image, but the automatic software got totally confused by the glare from the star, and concluded that the galaxy is far larger (on the sky) than it actually is.
Posted