Galaxy Zoo Talk

Dark spot

  • Froboem by Froboem

    Was jus wondering if this was anything out of the ordinary, found it difficult to classify as I haven't seen one like this before. There is a dark spot in the middle, slightly off centre?

    Posted

  • JeanTate by JeanTate in response to Froboem's comment.

    The 'dark spot' is an artifact of the image processing used to produce this. Here's the same galaxy in SDSS' own - DR8 - version of image processing (the actual data is what you 'see' when you click the 'Galaxy Zoo examine' link, then the large 'view raw data in different wavelengths' button; note that the orientation and scale of the DR8 image are different):

    enter image description here

    And here it is in the DR10 version:

    enter image description here

    As lostlens pointed out, there an asteroid crossing the galaxy (below the center in the GZ image); that makes this a very unusual object! Other than that, there are faint galaxies - possibly satellite galaxies - around it, and some are seem projected onto it. That's not all that unusual, especially for giant ellipticals.

    Posted

  • Froboem by Froboem

    Thanks 😃

    Posted