Spiral or merger/tidal debris

• by meeka777

  There appear to be two arm like areas at the top and bottom, but is it from the main galaxy being a spiral and the bottom one overlapping, or is it tidal debris from the two galaxies merging? I've marked it as the latter, but curious for another opinion.

  Posted July 19, 2013 12:28 AM

• by astromissy812

  Look like tidal debris to me, I've never seen a pic of a galaxies spiral arms going out that far without it being a merger

  Posted July 19, 2013 4:33 AM

• by JeanTate

  The highly symmetric, 'perfectly round' object below center is (most likely) a foreground (in our own galaxy) star, not related in any way to the galaxy. To me, the galaxy looks like a #barred spiral with two loose, asymmetric arms. I think the 'faint fluff' around it should be treated with caution (or suspicion), some may be noise or an artifact. When the multi-wavelength viewer tool becomes available, it'll be good to check it out with that.

  Posted July 19, 2013 6:43 AM

• by Spacer_fielding

  DSDD tags the bright lower object as a star

  http://skyserver.sdss3.org/dr9/en/tools/explore/obj.asp?id=1237658205579640933

  Posted July 21, 2013 12:58 AM

• by Spacer_fielding

  Sorry /DSDD/SDSS/ Sloan Digital Sky Survey ...

  Posted July 21, 2013 8:32 PM