NGC 1888-1889

The galaxy pair NGC1888/1889 at around 110 million light years from us in Lepus was first discovered by William Herschel in 1785, although he only saw one of the pair, NGC 1888. It took Bindon Stoney using Lord Rosse's 72" in 1851 to discover the smaller galaxy in the pair which became NGC 1889.

Arp catalogued the pair as Arp 123 in his group of "Ellipticals close to and perturbing spirals". NGC 1888 does look as if it is being distorted by an encounter with extended spiral arms. The galaxy does have a spiral arm on the opposite side to NGC 1889 which contains lots of young blue stars.

The pair are almost certainly in the early throws of a merger.

Taken from SWOS in El Sauce, Chile

Image Processing: Mark Hanson

Image Data and Calibration: Mike Selby PlaneWave CDK 1000

Enjoy, Mark