Object Of The Week, May 16, 2021 – NGC 5421 = Arp 111

[Don Pensack]

Great image here:
https://cseligman.com/text/atlas/ngc54.htm
Go halfway down the page to NGC5421.
1) Is the bottom galaxy interacting? It seems to have active star formation in proximity to the ineracting pair.
2) Is the straight star forming area to the left of the top galaxy's core a tidal tail from the one below or a distortion of the top galaxy?
3) Why is the bottom galaxy of the 3 so much bluer? Is it forming stars faster than the interacting pair.
Fascinating group, but at 304x in my 12.5" under 21.5 skies, all I noticed was a couple fuzzy stars. I'll have to go back and look again.

[lamperti]

1) possibly as the red shifts of PGC 2039203 (0.0260) is similar to NGC 5421 (0.0263)
2) My guess is foreground star
3) I concur about star formation

Great image here:
https://cseligman.com/text/atlas/ngc54.htm
Go halfway down the page to NGC5421.
1) Is the bottom galaxy interacting? It seems to have active star formation in proximity to the ineracting pair.
2) Is the straight star forming area to the left of the top galaxy's core a tidal tail from the one below or a distortion of the top galaxy?
3) Why is the bottom galaxy of the 3 so much bluer? Is it forming stars faster than the interacting pair.
Fascinating group, but at 304x in my 12.5" under 21.5 skies, all I noticed was a couple fuzzy stars. I'll have to go back and look again.

[Don Pensack]

1) possibly as the red shifts of PGC 2039203 (0.0260) is similar to NGC 5421 (0.0263)
2) My guess is foreground star
3) I concur about star formation

Your point #2 isn't germane to my question. The feature to the left of the top galaxy in the photo to which I was referring looks like a straight tidal tail.
The star to which you refer appears to be on the right.
It could be a distortion of a spiral arm in the top galaxy, but it could also be a tidal tail torn from the nearby galaxy in which stars are forming along a line.