Purple Voorwerp?
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by IP0nderz
Could this be a Voorwerp next to the host galaxy? It seems to be brighter than its host/ neighbor, so maybe the AGN fizzled out and this is a (brighter) light echo?
Posted
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by Budgieye moderator
Hmm, there are many hot emissions in the spectral chart. Hα Hβ H γ It is hotter than I would have expected.
http://skyserver.sdss.org/dr9/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=1237651752408514778
http://skyserver.sdss.org/dr9/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=1237651752408514777
photoz 0.047832
Posted
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by NGC3314 scientist
I think that's a compact intense star-forming region that we might call a Pea if it were by itself instead of part of (or interacting with) the large galaxy - the spectrum has emission-line ratios that fit for being lit up by hot stars rather than an AGN. The SDSS image looks funny - it may have saturated in some of the filters, giving the ringlike appearance. I checked it in the Pan-STARRs images - the knot is quite compact. (For those who haven't found it, Pan-STARRs used a somewhat smaller telescope and does not go as deep as SDSS, but covers more of the sky and goes one filter farther into the infrared. Their image-cutout server is http://ps1images.stsci.edu/cgi-bin/ps1cutouts
Compact star-forming regions less isolated than peas are sometimes seen, even in the arms of spirals. I recall that NGC 5430 has a particularly powerful one, loaded with Wolf-Rayed stars.
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