star or galaxy?

• by AGF25

  Hello. Still getting used to identifying shapes and recognizing structures. Some feedback would be nice to help refine my characterizations. I initially thought this a faint galaxy but looking closely, there is some asymmetry to it, and the central intensity plus the irregular corona has made me think that perhaps this is a scattered star signal. Thank you in advance for any comments to clarify this picture.

  Posted July 19, 2013 8:42 AM

• by ElisabethB moderator

  This is definitely a galaxy. Could be a fuzzy spiral but actually too fuzzy to tell

  Posted July 19, 2013 10:25 AM

• by klmasters scientist

  I agree definitely a galaxy - you can tell because it's more extended that a star which will always be almost perfectly round. I would guess that it's a face-on spiral/disc galaxy, but it is hard to tell from this image.

  Posted July 19, 2013 10:38 AM

• by mzevin1 scientist, moderator

  In the classification process, you are also asked if the galaxy is asymmetric (which many post-quenched galaxies may be due to earlier interactions with other galaxies) and how obvious the central bulge is

  Posted July 20, 2013 3:42 AM