Galaxy Zoo Talk

what is that?

  • dontus by dontus

    It looks odd, doesn't it? Like someone got an eraser to the bottom half. It's cut off. Is it a dust streak?

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM admin

    I can see where you're seeing an "eraser" cut, but to me, it looks more like something is trailing of from the tip of the lower spiral arm, or otherwise interacting with it.

    If you cover up that little trail jutting up and to the right from the bottom of the galaxy, it just looks like an ordinary spiral galaxy (perhaps with a bit of star-forming in it; that little blue cloud at 10:00...?)

    So, yeah, would love to know what that little trail is!

    Posted

  • dontus by dontus

    So what I pointed out could actually be something of importance?

    Posted

  • DZM by DZM admin

    I'm no scientist, but it certainly looks intriguing to me.

    Posted

  • dontus by dontus

    Yeah, same here. Now it's going to bother me until I find out. Haha. I wish there was a way to.

    Posted

  • dontus by dontus

    It just looks so out of the ordinary and it seems no one has pointed it out but me. Hopefully it's something and I'm the first one to point it out. Haha.

    Posted

  • ElisabethB by ElisabethB moderator

    Hiya,

    I'd go for very disturbed spiral, but there is no obvious culprit insight. Could be the result of a flyby !

    Posted

  • dontus by dontus

    You keep breaking my heart, Elisabeth . I'm just a novice, if that. I love the facts and everything that goes with it, but the math is beyond me. To say that I love physics and the like would be a terrible understatement. It's a passion. So to discover something, anything, would be wonderful.

    Posted

  • dontus by dontus

    Could it be dark matter by any chance?

    Posted

  • williamaskew by williamaskew

    You cannot see dark matter though it can be detected through gravitational
    Lensing. What you are seeing, or not in this case, is the background universe. It looks dark because there is nothing there.

    Posted