Three galaxies merging?
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by Cryptic318
This looks like it could possibly be three entities merging. Its easier to see with the picture inverted
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by KWillett scientist, admin, translator
Agreed - look like three distinct bulges (in the center and then toward the left of the image). The extensive tail to the right side likely means there's been at least one orbit already of the merging galaxies that stripped the stars out that far. Very spectacular image (and timely - there was a paper on triple systems in SDSS published today. http://arxiv.org/abs/1604.02149
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