Three connected objects?
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by
bico
When I first saw this I thought all three objects were connected in some way (probably because they had the same colouring). If they are connected what is happening - a merger? If they aren't connected is it 2 spirals and an irregular clump?
Posted
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by
mzevin1
scientist, moderator
Without the spectroscopic data (ie. redshifts) for the two galaxies that aren't in the center of the image, it's hard to tell whether they are foreground/background galaxies or actually interacting with the one in the center. It looks like there may be some kind tidal bridge coming off the one in the center (though its hard to tell if it's real or noise), and since it is distorted it would hint at tidal interactions.
Keep in mind too that during the classification the only one whose morphological characteristics you need to classify is the galaxy at the center of the images. It looks to me like the distorted one in the middle has some sort of bar feature, possibly it used to be a spiral before becoming disturbed?
Posted