Galaxy Zoo Talk
Yes, perhaps a supernova event.
The colour and point-like nature single it out as a likely supernova event.
The GAMA-KiDS data is a fair bit deeper than SDSS, so no doubt the orange objects (background sources?) were just not visible in SDSS.
Yes, I think you're correct Abe. The colour is too distinct (blue).
The strong dust-lane and distinct colour difference leads me to believe these are 2 systems currently undergoing an interaction.
Similar to the devouring of a dwarf galaxy by NGC 5907, leaving stellar streams in its wake. Either that, or the flying spaghetti monster...
Also a potential shell (9 o'clock)?
Lots of star-forming regions, very unusual morphology/colour!
It may also be ever so slightly warped.
I would say so, yes. The colour is quite distinct.
Also with non-axisymmetric arms, potentially implying a past interaction event.
A very nice nuclear ring here!
Black regions like this one at 4 o'clock are bad pixels, usually saturated regions due to bright stars or peculiar camera edge effects.
Yes, I see a spiral pattern here.
Lots of clumps of ongoing star-formation. A very peculiar irregular system!
Yes, I suspect this has a very faint outer disk relative to its strong bar.
Yes, this may well have an active nucleus. A check of the spectra should confirm.
I don't see evidence for a merger, but I definitely see dust lanes - a very distinctive red spiral galaxy.
This could be a partially ringed galaxy, slightly inclined. A potential tidal wisp at 5 o'clock.
I don't see evidence for a bar, but I may be wrong! It does however feature a very nice offset disk!
Yes, this is an irregular galaxy (appropriately named in this case!)
It looks like a fairly edge-on disk with a ring to me, significantly inclined to the line of sight.
An irregular spiral, still undergoing significant levels of star-formation.
An overlap most likely. Any outflow, if visible, would be more likely to come from the central region, not the outer disk.
A visual reminder of a prior cataclysmic event. 2/2
This is a beautiful example of a post-merger system, with bow-shock like shells emanating from the central region... 1/2
looks like a real galaxy to me, albeit with a bright source off to the corner confusing the matter!
A very unusual system! Signs of dust obscuration at 5 o'clock, indicating that the blue disk may be in front of the red system.
I'd consider this a barred lenticular (S0) galaxy, as I can't fully distinguish the spiral arms (although, I can't rule them out either!)
looks distinctly like a supernova to me, in terms of colour, brightness and location within the disk of the galaxy.
Perhaps, although the colour shifts to green on the left side - curious bimodality in colour.
A great find! Blue spirals with a background edge-on disk fortuitously located to look like an extension of the arm? Extra spectra required!
Certainly ongoing star-formation at 3 o'clock. A very peculiar system!
Yes, stellar clusters / star-forming knots around the extreme wings of the disk of the galaxy.
A typical irregular galaxy, signs of interaction, very blue and star-forming.
We'd need to check the spectra to check re:AGN, but this does look like there has been some red/green band image misalignment occurring.
Yes, lots of star forming knots all around the outer edge of this galaxy.
A very nice red spiral, potential dust lane at 9 o'clock.
This could be a bar in the process of dissolving, but I think it's a little too diffuse to be classified as a regular bar.
These don't appear to be grav. lenses. All being at various radii from the central galaxy, it'd require a rather unusual mass distribution.
SDSS DR9 @ ESO: http://aladin.u-strasbg.fr/AladinLite/?target=323.76985-8.82919&fov=0.05&survey=P%2FSDSS9%2Fcolor
Curiously, the ESO close of SDSS data has slightly more coverage than the official SDSS finding chart tool!
It certainly looks like a supernova to me, although see here: https://talk.galaxyzoo.org/#/boards/BGZ0000007/discussions/DGZ0002gsd
Yes, lots of emission! Spectra: http://skyserver.sdss.org/dr9/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?ra=54.55404767361198&dec=-5.540395909252758
Are you referring to the flocculent material at ~2 o'clock? It's hard to say, but I suspect that's a background galaxy fortuitously aligned.
See the spectrum here: http://skyserver.sdss.org/dr9/en/get/specById.asp?id=1505393367935117312
Yes. If you take a look at the galaxy spectrum via the SDSS SkyServer, you notice strong star-forming emission lines for this system.
Looks like someone spilt something in the top left corner of it!
Potential interaction, as both objects seem to have a similar redshift.
With a potential 3rd object at 5 o'clock too, albeit not appearing in the SDSS finding chart as a separate object.
From 5 o'clock round clock-wise to 11 o'clock, this looks to me more like a ring system.
Larger region here: http://skyservice.pha.jhu.edu/DR9/ImgCutout/getjpeg.aspx?ra=47.4264622&dec=26.4370124&scale=0.19806&width=512&height=512
A slight astrometric offset between the colours has produced this apparent 'traffic light' effect. Other objects nearby show similarities.
I don't see a ring, but I can't rule one out either. Could be a SNe at 12 o'clock, yes!
Hard to say what this is without follow-up. It could be a CCD edge-effect (note the black stripe at the bottom, indicating a lack of data).
A good example of a post-merger system, with the outer region still exhibiting significant disturbance.
Two blue dots at 7 o'clock look like star-forming knots within the edge-on disk of the galaxy.
Almost exactly edge-on, with a hint of an older red stellar population in the central regions.
Potential sign of tidal debris at 5 o'clock, yes. Nice to see, as doesn't appear in SDSS data!
Yes, I agree, this looks like a very open spiral structure with a very blue nucleus.
Interesting! They could be SNe's, but they could also be two compact knots of ongoing SF. Verification with another survey required.
This is an edge on disturbed system, with several notable star-forming spots. Likely suffered from a recent interaction with another system.
The bar is certainly a large structure, although I'd be surprised if it accounts for a significant fraction of the total mass of the galaxy.
Yes, this is a heavily inclined spiral galaxy.
This reminds me of the GAMA 'Little Blue Spheroid' class (see https://arxiv.org/abs/1401.1817).
Yes, it certainly looks like something obscuring the light at around 3 o'clock. Nicely spotted! Potential signs for a small central disk.
The red horiz. line is a diffraction spike from a bright star just off to the left of the image. You can see the red bloom of the star too.
Very nice galaxy. The blue is most likely a foreground star in our own Milky Way galaxy. Would need more information to say for certain.
There has been an error in the background sky subtraction here, not properly removing the blue channel light before image creation.
I agree, this most likely looks like a supernova. Strong signal in VST KiDS g and r bands. Nothing in KiDS r and i bands.
You can observe this galaxy as imaged in multiple surveys at http://gama-psi.icrar.org/psi.php. You need the GAMA CATAID to look it up.
They appear only in g-band imaging (~475nm). No signal in other surveys of this area (SDSS/VIKING). Could be supernova or imaging artefact.
Potential interaction, central galaxy could be a SBa(rl) type.
Disk much more prominent here than SDSS: http://skyserver.sdss.org/dr9/en/tools/chart/chart.asp?ra=182.33900303&dec=-0.87477308 - amazing!
Highly disturbed. Reminds me of what some refer to as 'tadpole galaxies'.
Yes, a wonderful example of a tidal merger.
This galaxy is at the edge of an image region, and unfortunately suffers from this kind of imaging artefact.
Unfortunately we don't have a distance estimate for the small object to the left in GAMA. However, I agree, probably not a merging system.
Certainly a very low surface brightness object! GAMA believes this galaxy to have a mass of only 10^8.4 solar masses.
A very nice example of a boxy-peanut bulge. Could be caused by an inner-bar instability. It's the edge-on aspect of a face-on barlens.
Yes, a 'beautiful' artefact. Very pretty - could almost be a work of art!
This is a background galaxy being occulted by a foreground star in our own Milky Way.
A spectacular merging system, very beautiful!
Looks like a strongly inclined spiral to me.
Hard-edge artefacts like this occur from time-to-time, owing to the many differing observations which were used to construct these images.
Yes, perhaps, previously unseen in SDSS.
The darker patch to the right is a digital artefact on the image - a by-product of the image generation software - and not something real.
The unusually straight vertical line going through the centre of the galaxy is probably an unfortunate artefact produced at the telescope.
The small orange dot in the lower right corner is another unrelated source, not physically associated with the galaxy in the centre.
The dust lane through the centre and the blue spikes either side indicate the presence of a disk, which means it cannot be an E-type galaxy.
The bright object to the right is a different galaxy, most likely not spatially next to the blue wispy galaxy in the centre of the image.
I can't see the ring myself - only me?
Looks like a disturbed spiral to me (you can see see where the spiral arms used to be).
I can see what you mean, but I don't think there's enough evidence in this image to say for sure whether this galaxy hosts a ring or not.
looks like two stars, perhaps a binary star system.
The Heavenly Hippocampus, or Celestial Seahorse - I like it!
GAMA goes deeper than SDSS, so we expect to see more around each galaxy. Such diffuse arms may exist in SDSS but they're too faint to see!
The Eye of Sauron - I like it! A beautiful ringed intermediate-type spiral galaxy.
It looks like a highly inclined blue ring / partial-ring surrounding the central red bulge.
Looks to be a fair amount of star formation still occurring in the disk spiral arms.
SDSS image: http://skyserver.sdss.org/dr9/en/tools/chart/chart.asp?ra=134.7478378&dec=1.12736137
Yes, I'd agree with that. The spiral arms are not at all visible in the SDSS imaging - very nice to see!
The lower right object is a star in our own Milky Way. The smaller blue splotch at ~10 o'clock is a starforming region inside the galaxy.
Yes, most likely due to an interaction with nearby neighbours.
I'd say arms, as the brightness of the arms slowly drop off as it winds around. A ring should have a constant brightness all the way around.
Yes, what a curious system! It looks like a blue-coloured diffraction spike from the bright star is confusing the issue somewhat also.
Yes, it looks that way! I can see a #2colour #bimodality in the SDSS imaging too, so seems real.
Possibly a merger - distinctly different colour at 4 o'clock.
#boxy bulge too
The bright source at about 2 o'clock is a foreground star in our own galaxy.
Hi MayW - no problem, not obvious at all! To my eye this looks like a foreground star. Faint enough not to have #diffraction-spikes however.
An unusual #bimodality. Slight evidence in SDSS imaging also. Very unusual.
This has a redshift of z=0.13. A spectacular looking edge-on!
Yes, those look like #starforming knots to me, particularly at 8-9 o'clock.
One of my favourites! I call it the Seahorse Galaxy! Looks like a disturbed spiral to me, possibly due to interactions with nearby galaxies.
Yes, the other yellow sources are galaxies too! They're yellow/red in colour because the billions of stars inside them are older!
What a fascinating bi-modality! Great that we can see this in SDSS too - must be real!
Yes, G423187, a truly exceptional galaxy!
(Thank you to my colleague Carmella Lardo for her Italian translation below!)
E' una stella nella nostra Galassia, puoi rendertene conto perche' ha delle punte di diffrazione.
#disturbed-ring
These tidal streams are likely the remnant of a minor merger. It reminds me of NGC 5907 (https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080619.html)
The bright object is a star, notable due to its diffraction spikes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffraction_spike
Located 2.3 billion light-years away and containing approximately 120 billion stars. I agree, what an amazing image!
This could be a minor merging event taking place, or evidence for tidal disruption.
A fascinating galaxy! The debris could be stellar tails caused as a result of recent interactions with other nearby systems / environment
Yes, I think so, at ~5 o clock, largely due to its distinctive shape.
Hm, hard to say. It looks to me like a faint background galaxy due to its shape and colour.
Hi sarahkmast, yes, this strange-looking feature is an artefact of the imaging process, which unfortunately corrupts those particular pixels
The redshift for this galaxy is z~0.088
All of our imaging is brand new data taken on the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) by the KiDS team - no SDSS imaging in GAMA-KiDS!
http://skyserver.sdss.org/dr9/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?ra=140.84123186&dec=-1.72608743
The colour bimodality appears real, as it is also apparent in the SDSS image too.
Hi johnadams - a good question! There may be a few reasons:
Yes, with a hint of a #dust-lane too!
In fact the star to the right is so bright in the centre that it has #saturated the CCD telescope camera, causing the strange blue artefact!
Hi Astronautsaurus! The object to the right is a foreground #star in our own Milky Way. You can tell as it has strong #diffraction-spikes.
That is a star. You can tell as it has strong diffraction spikes, is extremely bright in the centre and drops off in brightness very quickly
To my eye it does potentially look like a double nucleus, most likely due to a recent merger event.
I agree, the asymmetry implies the presence of two arms, as does the transition in brightness from the core to the outer regions.
The redshift we have for this galaxy is z=0.0539. Very unusual, a blue clumpy irregular core with an extended blue disk.
I would say that it's too elongated to be an elliptical, so yes, I agree that this looks like an edge on disk.
We find the small galaxy in the centre at a distance of 2.23 billion light-years, whereas the larger is closer at 1.98 billion light-years.
One of my favourites! Always reminds me of Aladdin's lamp...!
There are 2 main types of galaxy: #spiral and #elliptical. Elliptical galaxies such as this one are smooth and round, without spiral arms!
Yes, as Budgieye has said, the nearby bright star at the bottom is so bright that it has saturated the camera and corrupted the image.
Yes, the central galaxy is at a #redshift of 0.096 (#lookback-time of 1.25 billion years) but we don't have distances for the other 2 blobs!
Also, the edges of #supernova end very sharply, whereas only galaxies can have a diffuse extended edge such as this one.
What an unusual looking object! It looks like an #elliptical galaxy, but the strong #dust-lane implies an #edge-on-disk.
Yes, I'd say you're spot on with that. Certainly has 2 arms, and it looks like there is a bar-like feature around the central bulge.
Yes, perhaps a supernova event.
The colour and point-like nature single it out as a likely supernova event.
The GAMA-KiDS data is a fair bit deeper than SDSS, so no doubt the orange objects (background sources?) were just not visible in SDSS.
Yes, I think you're correct Abe. The colour is too distinct (blue).
The strong dust-lane and distinct colour difference leads me to believe these are 2 systems currently undergoing an interaction.
Similar to the devouring of a dwarf galaxy by NGC 5907, leaving stellar streams in its wake. Either that, or the flying spaghetti monster...
Also a potential shell (9 o'clock)?
Lots of star-forming regions, very unusual morphology/colour!
It may also be ever so slightly warped.
I would say so, yes. The colour is quite distinct.
Also with non-axisymmetric arms, potentially implying a past interaction event.
A very nice nuclear ring here!
Black regions like this one at 4 o'clock are bad pixels, usually saturated regions due to bright stars or peculiar camera edge effects.
Yes, I see a spiral pattern here.
Lots of clumps of ongoing star-formation. A very peculiar irregular system!
Yes, I suspect this has a very faint outer disk relative to its strong bar.
Yes, this may well have an active nucleus. A check of the spectra should confirm.
I don't see evidence for a merger, but I definitely see dust lanes - a very distinctive red spiral galaxy.
This could be a partially ringed galaxy, slightly inclined. A potential tidal wisp at 5 o'clock.
I don't see evidence for a bar, but I may be wrong! It does however feature a very nice offset disk!
Yes, this is an irregular galaxy (appropriately named in this case!)
It looks like a fairly edge-on disk with a ring to me, significantly inclined to the line of sight.
An irregular spiral, still undergoing significant levels of star-formation.
An overlap most likely. Any outflow, if visible, would be more likely to come from the central region, not the outer disk.
A visual reminder of a prior cataclysmic event. 2/2
This is a beautiful example of a post-merger system, with bow-shock like shells emanating from the central region... 1/2
looks like a real galaxy to me, albeit with a bright source off to the corner confusing the matter!
A very unusual system! Signs of dust obscuration at 5 o'clock, indicating that the blue disk may be in front of the red system.
I'd consider this a barred lenticular (S0) galaxy, as I can't fully distinguish the spiral arms (although, I can't rule them out either!)
looks distinctly like a supernova to me, in terms of colour, brightness and location within the disk of the galaxy.
Perhaps, although the colour shifts to green on the left side - curious bimodality in colour.
A great find! Blue spirals with a background edge-on disk fortuitously located to look like an extension of the arm? Extra spectra required!
Certainly ongoing star-formation at 3 o'clock. A very peculiar system!
Yes, stellar clusters / star-forming knots around the extreme wings of the disk of the galaxy.
A typical irregular galaxy, signs of interaction, very blue and star-forming.
We'd need to check the spectra to check re:AGN, but this does look like there has been some red/green band image misalignment occurring.
Yes, lots of star forming knots all around the outer edge of this galaxy.
A very nice red spiral, potential dust lane at 9 o'clock.
This could be a bar in the process of dissolving, but I think it's a little too diffuse to be classified as a regular bar.
These don't appear to be grav. lenses. All being at various radii from the central galaxy, it'd require a rather unusual mass distribution.
SDSS DR9 @ ESO: http://aladin.u-strasbg.fr/AladinLite/?target=323.76985-8.82919&fov=0.05&survey=P%2FSDSS9%2Fcolor
Curiously, the ESO close of SDSS data has slightly more coverage than the official SDSS finding chart tool!
It certainly looks like a supernova to me, although see here: https://talk.galaxyzoo.org/#/boards/BGZ0000007/discussions/DGZ0002gsd
Yes, lots of emission! Spectra: http://skyserver.sdss.org/dr9/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?ra=54.55404767361198&dec=-5.540395909252758
Are you referring to the flocculent material at ~2 o'clock? It's hard to say, but I suspect that's a background galaxy fortuitously aligned.
See the spectrum here: http://skyserver.sdss.org/dr9/en/get/specById.asp?id=1505393367935117312
Yes. If you take a look at the galaxy spectrum via the SDSS SkyServer, you notice strong star-forming emission lines for this system.
Looks like someone spilt something in the top left corner of it!
Potential interaction, as both objects seem to have a similar redshift.
With a potential 3rd object at 5 o'clock too, albeit not appearing in the SDSS finding chart as a separate object.
From 5 o'clock round clock-wise to 11 o'clock, this looks to me more like a ring system.
Larger region here: http://skyservice.pha.jhu.edu/DR9/ImgCutout/getjpeg.aspx?ra=47.4264622&dec=26.4370124&scale=0.19806&width=512&height=512
A slight astrometric offset between the colours has produced this apparent 'traffic light' effect. Other objects nearby show similarities.
I don't see a ring, but I can't rule one out either. Could be a SNe at 12 o'clock, yes!
Hard to say what this is without follow-up. It could be a CCD edge-effect (note the black stripe at the bottom, indicating a lack of data).
A good example of a post-merger system, with the outer region still exhibiting significant disturbance.
Two blue dots at 7 o'clock look like star-forming knots within the edge-on disk of the galaxy.
Almost exactly edge-on, with a hint of an older red stellar population in the central regions.
Potential sign of tidal debris at 5 o'clock, yes. Nice to see, as doesn't appear in SDSS data!
Yes, I agree, this looks like a very open spiral structure with a very blue nucleus.
Interesting! They could be SNe's, but they could also be two compact knots of ongoing SF. Verification with another survey required.
This is an edge on disturbed system, with several notable star-forming spots. Likely suffered from a recent interaction with another system.
The bar is certainly a large structure, although I'd be surprised if it accounts for a significant fraction of the total mass of the galaxy.
Yes, this is a heavily inclined spiral galaxy.
This reminds me of the GAMA 'Little Blue Spheroid' class (see https://arxiv.org/abs/1401.1817).
Yes, it certainly looks like something obscuring the light at around 3 o'clock. Nicely spotted! Potential signs for a small central disk.
The red horiz. line is a diffraction spike from a bright star just off to the left of the image. You can see the red bloom of the star too.
Very nice galaxy. The blue is most likely a foreground star in our own Milky Way galaxy. Would need more information to say for certain.
There has been an error in the background sky subtraction here, not properly removing the blue channel light before image creation.
I agree, this most likely looks like a supernova. Strong signal in VST KiDS g and r bands. Nothing in KiDS r and i bands.
You can observe this galaxy as imaged in multiple surveys at http://gama-psi.icrar.org/psi.php. You need the GAMA CATAID to look it up.
They appear only in g-band imaging (~475nm). No signal in other surveys of this area (SDSS/VIKING). Could be supernova or imaging artefact.
Potential interaction, central galaxy could be a SBa(rl) type.
Disk much more prominent here than SDSS: http://skyserver.sdss.org/dr9/en/tools/chart/chart.asp?ra=182.33900303&dec=-0.87477308 - amazing!
Highly disturbed. Reminds me of what some refer to as 'tadpole galaxies'.
Yes, a wonderful example of a tidal merger.
This galaxy is at the edge of an image region, and unfortunately suffers from this kind of imaging artefact.
Unfortunately we don't have a distance estimate for the small object to the left in GAMA. However, I agree, probably not a merging system.
Certainly a very low surface brightness object! GAMA believes this galaxy to have a mass of only 10^8.4 solar masses.
A very nice example of a boxy-peanut bulge. Could be caused by an inner-bar instability. It's the edge-on aspect of a face-on barlens.
Yes, a 'beautiful' artefact. Very pretty - could almost be a work of art!
This is a background galaxy being occulted by a foreground star in our own Milky Way.
A spectacular merging system, very beautiful!
Looks like a strongly inclined spiral to me.
Hard-edge artefacts like this occur from time-to-time, owing to the many differing observations which were used to construct these images.
Yes, perhaps, previously unseen in SDSS.
The darker patch to the right is a digital artefact on the image - a by-product of the image generation software - and not something real.
The unusually straight vertical line going through the centre of the galaxy is probably an unfortunate artefact produced at the telescope.
The small orange dot in the lower right corner is another unrelated source, not physically associated with the galaxy in the centre.
The dust lane through the centre and the blue spikes either side indicate the presence of a disk, which means it cannot be an E-type galaxy.
The bright object to the right is a different galaxy, most likely not spatially next to the blue wispy galaxy in the centre of the image.
I can't see the ring myself - only me?
Looks like a disturbed spiral to me (you can see see where the spiral arms used to be).
I can see what you mean, but I don't think there's enough evidence in this image to say for sure whether this galaxy hosts a ring or not.
looks like two stars, perhaps a binary star system.
The Heavenly Hippocampus, or Celestial Seahorse - I like it!
GAMA goes deeper than SDSS, so we expect to see more around each galaxy. Such diffuse arms may exist in SDSS but they're too faint to see!
The Eye of Sauron - I like it! A beautiful ringed intermediate-type spiral galaxy.
It looks like a highly inclined blue ring / partial-ring surrounding the central red bulge.
Looks to be a fair amount of star formation still occurring in the disk spiral arms.
SDSS image: http://skyserver.sdss.org/dr9/en/tools/chart/chart.asp?ra=134.7478378&dec=1.12736137
Yes, I'd agree with that. The spiral arms are not at all visible in the SDSS imaging - very nice to see!
The lower right object is a star in our own Milky Way. The smaller blue splotch at ~10 o'clock is a starforming region inside the galaxy.
Yes, most likely due to an interaction with nearby neighbours.
I'd say arms, as the brightness of the arms slowly drop off as it winds around. A ring should have a constant brightness all the way around.
Yes, what a curious system! It looks like a blue-coloured diffraction spike from the bright star is confusing the issue somewhat also.
Yes, it looks that way! I can see a #2colour #bimodality in the SDSS imaging too, so seems real.
Possibly a merger - distinctly different colour at 4 o'clock.
#boxy bulge too
The bright source at about 2 o'clock is a foreground star in our own galaxy.
Hi MayW - no problem, not obvious at all! To my eye this looks like a foreground star. Faint enough not to have #diffraction-spikes however.
An unusual #bimodality. Slight evidence in SDSS imaging also. Very unusual.
This has a redshift of z=0.13. A spectacular looking edge-on!
Yes, those look like #starforming knots to me, particularly at 8-9 o'clock.
One of my favourites! I call it the Seahorse Galaxy! Looks like a disturbed spiral to me, possibly due to interactions with nearby galaxies.
Yes, the other yellow sources are galaxies too! They're yellow/red in colour because the billions of stars inside them are older!
What a fascinating bi-modality! Great that we can see this in SDSS too - must be real!
Yes, G423187, a truly exceptional galaxy!
(Thank you to my colleague Carmella Lardo for her Italian translation below!)
E' una stella nella nostra Galassia, puoi rendertene conto perche' ha delle punte di diffrazione.
#disturbed-ring
These tidal streams are likely the remnant of a minor merger. It reminds me of NGC 5907 (https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080619.html)
The bright object is a star, notable due to its diffraction spikes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffraction_spike
Located 2.3 billion light-years away and containing approximately 120 billion stars. I agree, what an amazing image!
This could be a minor merging event taking place, or evidence for tidal disruption.
A fascinating galaxy! The debris could be stellar tails caused as a result of recent interactions with other nearby systems / environment
Yes, I think so, at ~5 o clock, largely due to its distinctive shape.
Hm, hard to say. It looks to me like a faint background galaxy due to its shape and colour.
Hi sarahkmast, yes, this strange-looking feature is an artefact of the imaging process, which unfortunately corrupts those particular pixels
The redshift for this galaxy is z~0.088
All of our imaging is brand new data taken on the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) by the KiDS team - no SDSS imaging in GAMA-KiDS!
http://skyserver.sdss.org/dr9/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?ra=140.84123186&dec=-1.72608743
The colour bimodality appears real, as it is also apparent in the SDSS image too.
Hi johnadams - a good question! There may be a few reasons:
Yes, with a hint of a #dust-lane too!
In fact the star to the right is so bright in the centre that it has #saturated the CCD telescope camera, causing the strange blue artefact!
Hi Astronautsaurus! The object to the right is a foreground #star in our own Milky Way. You can tell as it has strong #diffraction-spikes.
That is a star. You can tell as it has strong diffraction spikes, is extremely bright in the centre and drops off in brightness very quickly
To my eye it does potentially look like a double nucleus, most likely due to a recent merger event.
I agree, the asymmetry implies the presence of two arms, as does the transition in brightness from the core to the outer regions.
The redshift we have for this galaxy is z=0.0539. Very unusual, a blue clumpy irregular core with an extended blue disk.
I would say that it's too elongated to be an elliptical, so yes, I agree that this looks like an edge on disk.
We find the small galaxy in the centre at a distance of 2.23 billion light-years, whereas the larger is closer at 1.98 billion light-years.
One of my favourites! Always reminds me of Aladdin's lamp...!
There are 2 main types of galaxy: #spiral and #elliptical. Elliptical galaxies such as this one are smooth and round, without spiral arms!
Yes, as Budgieye has said, the nearby bright star at the bottom is so bright that it has saturated the camera and corrupted the image.
Yes, the central galaxy is at a #redshift of 0.096 (#lookback-time of 1.25 billion years) but we don't have distances for the other 2 blobs!
Also, the edges of #supernova end very sharply, whereas only galaxies can have a diffuse extended edge such as this one.
What an unusual looking object! It looks like an #elliptical galaxy, but the strong #dust-lane implies an #edge-on-disk.
Yes, I'd say you're spot on with that. Certainly has 2 arms, and it looks like there is a bar-like feature around the central bulge.