The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured an excellent image of the interacting spiral lens galaxy pair Arp 140.
Lenticular galaxy NGC 274 can be seen on the right side of this Hubble image, and barred spiral galaxy NGC 275 can be seen on the left side. Image credit: NASA / ESA / R. Foley, University of California, Santa Cruz / Gladys Kober, NASA and The Catholic University of America.
Alp 140 Located approximately at 70 million light years Beyond Cetus.
This galaxy duo Atlas of unique galaxiesA catalog of 338 galaxies compiled in 1966 by American astronomer Halton Earp.
It consists of NGC274 (also known as LEDA 2980) and NGC275 (LEDA 2984).
NGC 274 is classified as a lenticular galaxy, and NGC 275 is classified as a barred spiral galaxy.
“Lentiform galaxies and barred spiral galaxies have different structures,” Hubble astronomer explained.
“In a barred spiral galaxy, a bar of stars runs through the galaxy's central bulge (seen here as a bright white vertical haze in NGC 275).”
“Typically, the arms of a galaxy begin at the end of the bar.”
“Lentiform galaxies, on the other hand, fall between elliptical and spiral galaxies,” the researchers added.
“Its name comes from its edgy appearance, which resembles a saucer.”
“Lenticular galaxies have a large central bulge and a flat disk-like spiral, but no spiral arms.”
“It doesn’t have much gas or dust, and it’s mainly made up of old stars.”
Previous observations of Arp 140 revealed a tidal tail extending light-years from NGC 275 beyond the interacting pair.
They also showed that, contrary to the often assumed picture of interacting galaxies, NGC 275 does not exhibit enhanced star formation.
Source: www.sci.news
