Galaxy Zoo Talk

Probable optical pairing - bar and cigar - interesting

  • Mhannum by Mhannum

    I wonder about this one - the bar-shaped, ringed galaxy dead-center seems completely unaffected by the cigar-shaped galaxy nearby. Perhaps they are an optical pairing and lie a vast distance apart. I can't imagine them being that close without some clear disk distortion. Also, that cigar-shaped one is either an elliptical galaxy or maybe one of the elusive edge-on galaxies.

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  • vrooje by vrooje admin, scientist

    If you click through to "Galaxy Zoo examine" and then "View on SkyServer" you can see a lot more information about this galaxy -- including the spectrum and the measured redshift, which is z=0.030. If you want to look at the other things around the galaxy you can click the "Navigate" option under the PhotoObj menu at left, and then click on the center of the other galaxy and click "Explore" to the right of the image. That will bring up the SkyServer image for the other galaxy, and it also has a spectrum and a measured redshift, z=0.029.

    So these are actually very close together in space, not just a chance coincidence. You'd have to know more about their relative masses and velocities to predict whether they will pass by each other and carry on or eventually merge to a single galaxy... but either way they must have only come together recently as they will definitely disturb each other during this interaction, and I agree they don't look particularly distorted yet. Wait a few hundred million years... 😃

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  • Mhannum by Mhannum

    Interesting - looks like we're watching the events before the big show as the two galaxies collide. Thanks for the tips!

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