A few goodies in Cancer. IC 2312, Arp 167, Arp 89, Arp 243

[Mike JW]

IC 2312 lurks some 1.12 billion lyrs away. It is the brightest grey fuzz (see the inset for a closer look) at mag 15 and is thought to be 100,000 lyrs across. Below it is a star; not a galaxy. Above it is its companion (PGC 1561719) at mag 16 or fainter. I could not find data for it. Possibly it has nothing to do with IC 2312. - line of sight and no interaction?

 

Arp 167 (NGC 2672/73) is  pair of interacting galaxies with diffuse counter tails according to Arp's classification. Professional images show a very tight counter plume from the companion. They are both elliptical galaxies and lie about 167 million lyrs away.

 

Arp 89 (NGC 2648) is a spiral with a large high surface brightness companion. They are about 107 million lyrs away and inhabit an empty region - no other galaxies nearby. The main galaxy does not appear to be distorted by the interaction, presumably because it is so much larger than the companion.

 

Arp 243 (NGC 2623) is the result of the merger of two or maybe three galaxies. The merger is thought to be almost complete. Arp classified the pair as having the appearance of fission.

 

 

A very enjoyable outing, finding these guys in difficult, windy conditions.

Mike

[domstar]

Wow. Mind-blowing. A great reminder to get to know about the objects we observe.