ASTRO: Arp 204 A galactic freak

If there is ever a freak show for galaxies this one would be the
headliner.

Arp 204 is a two or three galaxy mash-up in northern Camelopardalis less
than 6 degrees from the pole. The VV, CGCG and CGPG catalogs call it
three while NED and the UGC say it is two. Arp is mum on this having no
comment. He did put it in his oddball class for galaxies with "material
ejected from nuclei". What he sees as ejected from what is not
mentioned. The CGPG has this note on it: "Blue post-eruptive triple
galaxy, interconnected by pronounced thin bridge, length 2'
south-southwest to north-northeast." Oddly, NED shows positions for
only two of the three CGCG galaxies. I have to assume it is the same as
the VV catalog sees but since it isn't in NED this is only a guess. NED
lists the third VV member as part of a galaxy rather than a separate
galaxy. It is the blue blob at the southwest end Arp 204. I've pointed
these various objects out on the annotated image.

There is another interesting pair of possibly interacting galaxies, UGC
8394. While NED makes no attempt to classify any part of Arp 204 it
does classify the northeastern galaxy of UGC 8394 as Sb and the
southwest member as "compact". That is usually reserved for a small,
mostly round, tight, nearly featureless ball of stars. This looks to me
to be a rather tight spiral, possibly a dense Sa galaxy. I've never
seen a compact galaxy with such a prominent spiral structure before. A
note at NED says they are interacting. The NE galaxy shows a faint
plume to the northeast and one to the southwest connects the two
galaxies. So yes, they are likely interacting. The dense southwest
galaxy is likely inflicting most of the damage. The CGPG says: "Pair of
interconnected galaxies. No. 1, patchy blue compact, m_p_ = 15.7. No.
2, neutral Sb, 40" north-following No. 1, m_p_ = 17.0." NED has no
redshift data on the pair unfortunately.

South of both Arp 204 and UGC 8394 is UGC 8414, a Sm spiral about 200
million light-years distant. It appears to be somewhat closer than Arp
204. There is something just off its southeastern (lower left) arm. I
can't tell for sure if it is another galaxy or just a somewhat detached
star cloud of UGC 8414. There are several other galaxies in the
immediate area. None are listed at NED.

At the very top of the image is UGC 8380. NED lists it as Scd: saying
it would be a rather open armed spiral if we could see it more face on.
Again no redshift data is available. In fact, only one other galaxy
in my image has a redshift value at NED. That puts it about 2.1 billion
light-years out. While NED doesn't classify this very distant galaxy,
it does indicate it is a narrow line Seyfert 1 galaxy. I've listed by
catalog name every galaxy NED lists for my image. When you get only a
few degrees from the pole (less than 6 in this case) NED has very little
coverage. The vast majority of them aren't listed at NED at all. Most
that are, as you can see from the annotated image are from the 2MASS
survey of galaxies with strong emission at 2 microns. This is a region
that falls between normal infrared and radio frequencies.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10', RGB=2x10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Rick
--
Prefix is correct. Domain is arvig dot net

I forgot to include the link to Arp's photo of this one with the 200"
Palomar Hale Telescope.
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/A...ig_arp204.jpeg
Rick


On 1/4/2013 1:03 AM, Rick Johnson wrote:
If there is ever a freak show for galaxies this one would be the headliner.

Arp 204 is a two or three galaxy mash-up in northern Camelopardalis less
than 6 degrees from the pole. The VV, CGCG and CGPG catalogs call it
three while NED and the UGC say it is two. Arp is mum on this having no
comment. He did put it in his oddball class for galaxies with "material
ejected from nuclei". What he sees as ejected from what is not
mentioned. The CGPG has this note on it: "Blue post-eruptive triple
galaxy, interconnected by pronounced thin bridge, length 2'
south-southwest to north-northeast." Oddly, NED shows positions for
only two of the three CGCG galaxies. I have to assume it is the same as
the VV catalog sees but since it isn't in NED this is only a guess. NED
lists the third VV member as part of a galaxy rather than a separate
galaxy. It is the blue blob at the southwest end Arp 204. I've pointed
these various objects out on the annotated image.

There is another interesting pair of possibly interacting galaxies, UGC
8394. While NED makes no attempt to classify any part of Arp 204 it
does classify the northeastern galaxy of UGC 8394 as Sb and the
southwest member as "compact". That is usually reserved for a small,
mostly round, tight, nearly featureless ball of stars. This looks to me
to be a rather tight spiral, possibly a dense Sa galaxy. I've never
seen a compact galaxy with such a prominent spiral structure before. A
note at NED says they are interacting. The NE galaxy shows a faint
plume to the northeast and one to the southwest connects the two
galaxies. So yes, they are likely interacting. The dense southwest
galaxy is likely inflicting most of the damage. The CGPG says: "Pair of
interconnected galaxies. No. 1, patchy blue compact, m_p_ = 15.7. No.
2, neutral Sb, 40" north-following No. 1, m_p_ = 17.0." NED has no
redshift data on the pair unfortunately.

South of both Arp 204 and UGC 8394 is UGC 8414, a Sm spiral about 200
million light-years distant. It appears to be somewhat closer than Arp
204. There is something just off its southeastern (lower left) arm. I
can't tell for sure if it is another galaxy or just a somewhat detached
star cloud of UGC 8414. There are several other galaxies in the
immediate area. None are listed at NED.

At the very top of the image is UGC 8380. NED lists it as Scd: saying
it would be a rather open armed spiral if we could see it more face on.
Again no redshift data is available. In fact, only one other galaxy
in my image has a redshift value at NED. That puts it about 2.1 billion
light-years out. While NED doesn't classify this very distant galaxy,
it does indicate it is a narrow line Seyfert 1 galaxy. I've listed by
catalog name every galaxy NED lists for my image. When you get only a
few degrees from the pole (less than 6 in this case) NED has very little
coverage. The vast majority of them aren't listed at NED at all. Most
that are, as you can see from the annotated image are from the 2MASS
survey of galaxies with strong emission at 2 microns. This is a region
that falls between normal infrared and radio frequencies.

14" LX200R @ f/10, L=4x10', RGB=2x10', STL-11000XM, Paramount ME

Rick


--
Prefix is correct. Domain is arvig dot net