Hybrid Galaxy (SAO-type)?
-
Hello, Galaxy Zoo experts!
This galaxy looks like a hybrid between an elliptical galaxy and a spiral. SAO type galaxy. What do you think?
What means the unusually bright inner disk?
Is such a galaxy a stable galaxy or is it about to evolve into a spiral?Posted
-
by
JeanTate
in response to Schreckenstein's comment.
Welcome to Galaxy Zoo, Schreckenstein!
According to NED, this is UGC 04023 (it has quite a few other names too), and is indeed an S0 galaxy (these kind of galaxies are also called lenticulars). It has no apparent arms, and yet it is a disk. It's hard to say, just by looking at this image, if the inner disk is unusually bright (all the images we see in GZ have been processed to highlight certain features; only a quantitative analysis could tell you if the apparent jump in intensity is real, and not a result of the image processing).
The yellowish-orange color - 'red' in astronomer-speak - points to an almost complete lack of any on-going star-formation, which in turn likely means the galaxy has used up just about all its cold (molecular) gas and dust.
Its future evolution depends on its environment - how close is it to other galaxies (with comparable mass)? how likely is it that it will interact with other, massive galaxies? - and also on how the mass within it is currently distributed. However, it is unlikely it'll ever develop spiral arms, and almost certainly will not have nice blue ones.
Happy hunting! 😃
Posted
