|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
ASTRO: Hickson 67 held a major surprise
Hickson scoured the POSS plates and cataloged small compact groups of
galaxies. One I found very interesting is #67 in the list. Interesting because Hickson and others got it wrong it appears! Probably because most work from the POSS plates which over exposed the core galaxy of the group hiding its true nature. The group consists of two major galaxies, NGC 5306/VV135 and MCG -01-35-013. MCG -01-35-013 is a nice edge on, somewhat distorted, spiral. The southern arm is rather odd. The dust lane ends and suddenly the arm gets very narrow and blue. The transition is very sudden and unusual. The galaxy has not been studied that I could find. NGC 5306 is where things started to go wrong. It appears NGC 5306 is the center "galaxy" with the two others, north and south of it, not considered part of NGC 5306. The Vorontsov-Velyaminov Interacting Galaxies catalog however does include the galaxies to the northeast and southwest as they reside in a common halo. But all catalogs miss the fact that the core galaxy is actually two galaxies. NED doesn't show them separately nor does any catalog I could find. On the POSS 2 plates they merge into one due to over exposure. Apparently no one looked further. The VV catalog lists the pair as VV 135a as I've shown in the annotated image. The other two being c and b of course. NED classes NGC 5306/VV 135a as either S0 pec or E1. The NGC project says S0P? The redshift value like their classification is apparently a mash-up of that for both galaxies. This field was recommended to me by Sakib Rasool so I contacted him to ask if he wanted me to image it because he suspected that NGC 5306/VV135 was a double galaxy. Nope, it came as a surprise to him as well. He was interested the the spiral MCG -01-35-013 as it appeared warped or distorted on the POSS plates. He did some digging and contacted the astronomer John Hibbard who studies interacting galaxies. Dr. Hibbard, then did some digging and came up with one paper on it I'd not found. http://aas.aanda.org/index.php?optio...513&Itemid=129 The paper labels it a double core galaxy; n1 and n2 which I labeled on the annotated image. But it goes on to indicate the authors feel these are two superimposed galaxies not as close as their angular separation indicates. I would agree with this as while the overall halo is oriented toward VV135c and VV135d, n2 is oriented almost at right angles to this. Oddly it is the brighter of the two however. This would need some explanation it would seem. This is one group that needs a lot more study and some catalog asterisks or corrections. VV 135b is classed as S0 pec. I don't know what causes them to tack on the peculiar label. VV 135c is classes Scd. It sure has some odd structure to it. Unfortunately the structure is beyond my abilities to determine what it is. It certainly looks disturbed but somehow avoided the pec label. A few other galaxies are scattered across the image that are members of the Hickson group. Others are about twice as distant. The field is little studied with most galaxies being anonymous. While the image is my usual size it was taken at 0.5" per pixel rather than my normal 1" per pixel so covers only one fourth the area of my normal images. As such most of the remaining members of HCG 67 lie beyond the field of view. If I'd used my normal field (would have been 4 times bigger image and too big for internet) though now I wish I'd have taken the full field and reduced it to my normal scale, I'd have picked up almost a dozen other members of the group. It is rather widely scattered. I was hoping to bring out a jet that one source says is coming from the nucleus of NGC 5306 but I don't see it. How they find such a jet yet miss it is a double galaxy I can't understand. Since it is already at a greater image scale than my enlargements I've not done one this time. I am including a cropped image as I get a lot of requests for smaller images from those with pixel challenged monitors. Dr. Hibbard's email goes on to say about Hickson 67: "It appears to be the central concentration of a larger group with at least 15-17 members. About 10-15% of HCGs are thought to be such creates, and thus not true compact groups in the way Hickson meant. "These double nucleated ellipticals are interested - they are sometimes considered examples of galactic "cannibalization". About 25% of cD galaxies have multiple nuclei (although I am not sure if NGC5306 is a full-blown cD; that requires it to have an extended luminous envelop). See e.g. http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/M...razin2_10.html. "Well, back to work. Thanks for the diversion and beautiful image!" For a bit there I thought I might have found something previously unknown. Nope, just something hidden deep in the literature. Still, finding something this obscure is quite exciting. 14" LX200R @ f/10, L=8x10'x1 RGB=2x10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME Rick -- Prefix is correct. Domain is arvig dot net |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
NGC 3718, NGC 3729 & Hickson 56: galaxies in Ursa Major | Danilo Pivato | CCD Imaging | 1 | May 9th 11 11:12 AM |
ASTRO: NGC 3718, NGC 3729 & Hickson 56: galaxies in Ursa Major | Danilo Pivato | Astro Pictures | 1 | May 3rd 11 09:23 PM |
ASTRO: Arp 237/Hickson 36 | Rick Johnson[_2_] | Astro Pictures | 1 | January 4th 11 08:03 PM |
ASTRO: Hickson 7 | Rick Johnson[_2_] | Astro Pictures | 1 | October 27th 10 07:51 PM |
ASTRO: Hickson 68 | Rick Johnson[_2_] | Astro Pictures | 2 | September 30th 08 07:54 PM |