Galaxy Zoo Talk

Need help with classifying: dust lane, merger galaxies or artifact?

  • lovermann by lovermann

    Can't recognize, why type of distortion is it: dust lane, merger border or just artifact. Thank you for your opinions.

    Posted

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

    While classifying, call it as you - personally - see it.

    Afterwards, let's discuss it here! 😃

    I think both dust lane and merger/overlap are possible; I'd discount artifact (haven't seen any UKIDSS artifacts that look like this).

    In SDSS (gri filters), it looks like this:

    enter image description here

    Don't know about you, but to me it seems to be a quite different field! 😮

    ETA: on second thoughts, it is the same field, just at a rather smaller scale (fewer " per pixel) than I'd guessed. Messy merger of late-type galaxies (little gas, so no star-forming fireworks)?

    Here it is in DR10:

    enter image description here

    The bulge/nucleus seems extended, and two-toned (though that may be an artifact). The spectrum seems to have just one redshift system, which argues more for a dust lane than a merger (and pretty much rules out an overlap).

    Hmm, lots of dust but no emission lines ... very strange! 😮

    Posted