| Description | This is a very mysterious duo of galaxies. The smaller, to the left, appears like a ribbon because it has been largely stripped of its envelope of stars. The larger, right, is a weirdly distorted spiral, in 3/4 view, viewing from the top left.. To be clear, the bright center is actually a star, not the galactic center. The actual galactic center is just above it, and therefore asymmetrically located within the spiral. The top arm has been pulled left. The bottom half of the spiral is largely missing: this is not obvious in my capture, but very clear in Arp's. I see that some sources explain the mystery by the smaller galaxy having actually passed through the larger. A this is certainly consistent with what i can see. |
