Galaxy Zoo Talk

Why do some galaxies seem to have 3 distinct shells?

  • dindon by dindon

    I understand the concept of the bulge and the disk, but some objects such as this one have an obvious bulge, and then two distinct regions of similar brightness. Anyone know why this is?

    Posted

  • Capella05 by Capella05 moderator

    One possibility is ansae at the ends of a bar. Just beacuse we can't see a well defined bar it does not mean there is not one.

    More info in this link here

    The bright regions are less well defined in the colour image of this galaxy:

    J162821.56+405424.4

    Nice ring structure.

    Posted

  • dindon by dindon in response to Capella05's comment.

    Thanks for the link! I've been looking for something like this. Really fascinating reading (even if a lot of it goes over my head).

    I feel like I see the 3-way division even in galaxies that are definitely unbarred. For example, the top row of S0 galaxies here:

    It's especially dramatic in the third from the right.

    Posted