Citizen Science in Action: the "Violin Clef" merger
Just a few days ago, long-time forum member Bruno posted a curious galaxy as his choice for "Object of the Day" for September 9th. These are some really beautiful tidal tails. They are extremely long and thin and appear curiously poor in terms of star formation (very little blue light from young stars), which is odd since mergers do tend to trigger star formation. There is no spectrum so we do not know the redshift of the object. It is also not clear if the objects at either end are associated or just a projection. Read more