Arp 225 / NGC 2655

[jthommes]

GC 2655 / Arp 225 is Liner, active nucleus galaxy with classification SAB(s)0/a. Its is the brightest member of a galaxy group (under various identifiers) along with NGC 2715, UGC 04701 and UGC 04714 that are also visible in this image. NED lists NGC 2655's small satellite galaxy, LEDA 3085822, as a group member as well. NGC 2655 and sibling group members are about 64 to 72 million light years distant.

There are a pair of irregular galaxies (UGC 04563 and 04566) in the image that are at a more distant 167 million light years. There is the distant Abell 719 cluster of galaxies in the image. It has a redshift of 0.24580 and a light travel time of about 2.89 billion light years. There are several background galaxies that are visually small, but still seen in this image.

Image and details can be accessed at the link below (or by clicking on the NGC 2655 / Arp 225 thumbnail crop below). The annotated image (which shows many of the galaxies and info) also has a link below but it can also be accessed from the main image webpage as well. Full size image can also be accessed from the image webpage and has an image scale of 1.25 arcsec/pixel.

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    NGC 2655 / Arp 225

Annotated Image:
NGC 2655 / Arp 225 Annotated

Scope: MN152 Mak-Newt at f/4.8
Camera: ASI1600M (Astronomik Gen2 LRGB Filters)
Location: DAA Observatory, Shelter Valley, CA

[messier 111]

well done very nice , thx

[STEVE333]

Pretty one Jim. The distances to nebulae is beyond my comprehension, and, galaxies are so much more distant. Mind boggling. And yet, beautiful images like this still bring them into view.

Steve

[starfield]

Beautiful galaxy group, Jim. Always enjoy the annotations as well.

[MariusD69]

Wonderful image! Well done, Jim!!

[Juno16]

A very beautiful image Jim!

As always, the annotated version is quite interesting as is the writeup on you web site.

Thanks!

[Jockinireland]

Thats agreat image of a really unusual object.

[Gmetric]

Stunner, Jim.

[kt4hx]

Outstanding as always Jim. You nicely captured the disturbed structure to the northwest of the main body of NGC 2655 as well as the warped arm to the east within the galactic disk. The dustiness along the western side to the southwest of the core is apparent as well. There is also something extended just north of the core that looks like it could be a background galaxy visible through the halo of NGC 2655. Very well done.

[jthommes]

Thanks for the comments folks.

I especially appreciate the comments on the annotation.It is a semi-automated as well as semi-manual process. Quite frankly, I enjoy the manual research on an image field and the time invested in annotation. I usually discover things I had not known about an image prior to capture and process.

[jthommes]

Pretty one Jim. The distances to nebulae is beyond my comprehension, and, galaxies are so much more distant. Mind boggling. And yet, beautiful images like this still bring them into view.

Steve

Thanks Steve,

Yeah, my brain gets twisted up too. When redshift gets to be greater than 1.0, the simplistic understanding would be that it is moving faster than the speed of light. But in fact this redshift is due to the combination its velocity in its local space as well as the expansion of space itself. From what I understand of astrophysics (which admittedly isn't much), redshift needs to be fairly low (less than 0.03) for it's redshift to be due solely to an object's radial velocity to us.

And it gets particularly twisty when if an object gets far enough away, the expansion of space makes that object's light un-observable to us. Somewhere between 13-15 billion light years (light travel time) and beyond, space is expanding faster than light could ever reach us for observation. I have seen an article that suggests that about 150,000,000 stars cross this boundary every 7 minutes and become technically un-observable to us. So that occasional Quasar in our image that we see now at 8 billion light years (light travel time) will become invisible in a few billion years from now as space expands.

That's what I think about those late nights when I am collecting photons. Sometimes I can't get to sleep.

[jthommes]

Outstanding as always Jim. You nicely captured the disturbed structure to the northwest of the main body of NGC 2655 as well as the warped arm to the east within the galactic disk. The dustiness along the western side to the southwest of the core is apparent as well. There is also something extended just north of the core that looks like it could be a background galaxy visible through the halo of NGC 2655. Very well done.

Thanks Alan,

Yeah, some of those things are at the limit of certainty for the data in this image. When I process, I remove gradients or do other outlier rejection routines. I try not to overdo and obliterate what is really there. The dustiness southwest of the core came out pleasantly well, but NED had nothing on it. I did notice the object north of the core and was hoping it was something interesting. NED has it identified as WISEA J085544.48+781451.0, an IRS source. As such, NED had only limited data (in infrared wavelengths from the WISE survey- All Sky and other IR surveys) so there was not much to annotate.

[TheButcher]

Excellent Jim!

[Thefatkitty]

That is really nice Jim; so much to see there! Absolutely stunning. And I agree with the others; your writings on your subject targets make it all that more enjoyable, and put it into perspective.

Well done on all counts,

[Ylem]

Well done Jim
Very nice

[jthommes]

Jeff, Mark, TheButcher,
Thanks for the comments.

[Gordon]

Congratulations Jim on having your image selected as todays TSS APOD!!

app.php/article/4-28-2021-tss-astrophot ... of-the-day

[TheButcher]

Excellent Again and Congrats on the APOD Jim!

[Ruud]

It's wonderful Jim. The large view has me really impressed.

Congrats on the apod!

[Makuser]

Hi Jim. A superb Arp225 and neighbors image. This was a pleasure to view, and I also enjoyed the accompanying annotated chart. Thanks for sharing the view with us on here Jim, and congratulations on receiving the TSS APOD Award.