APOD: Young Star Cluster NGC 346 (2023 Jan 13)

[johnnydeep]

Hey, did anyone notice the OTHER galaxy that looks quite similar to the possibly double nucleated one being discussed above? It's a ways down and to the right:

Click to view full size image

Great find, Johnny! Your "other" galaxy is definitely a real spiral galaxy, and it is interacting with a smaller galaxy as well.

Ann

Yes, it's indubitably a pair of galaxies, unlike the debatable other "one".

[VictorBorun]

How strange!
In the Hubble image, we can see one bright "nucleus"(?), and immediately to the right of it we can see one faint yellow "nucleus"(?). And to the right of the second nucleus is another, reasonably bright object.
Ann

Click to view full size image 1 or image 2

I wonder if the right core is in fact a red dwarf star at 10 ly distance from us moving fast between the two snapshots.
Does GAIA have it catalogued?

two-cored - background galaxy jwst.png

two-cored - background galaxy hst.png

...

[Ann]

Hey, did anyone notice the OTHER galaxy that looks quite similar to the possibly double nucleated one being discussed above? It's a ways down and to the right:

Click to view full size image

Great find, Johnny! Your "other" galaxy is definitely a real spiral galaxy, and it is interacting with a smaller galaxy as well.

Ann

Yes, it's indubitably a pair of galaxies, unlike the debatable other "one".

Your "other" galaxy (or galaxies) strengthens my belief that the first object is also a galaxy, in spite of its strange double nucleus. Note how similar the objects are in size, color and morphology. That is exactly what we would expect if these two are galaxies of a similar size, morphology and dust content (or lack thereof), and at a similar distance from us.

Background galaxies behind Tadpole.png

Background galaxies behind the Tadpole galaxy. These galaxies are of a similar size
and color, and they are certainly at a similar distance from us. Credit: NASA,
H. Ford, G. Illingworth, M. Clampin, G. Hartig, the ACS Science Team, and ESA

Ann

[VictorBorun]

Great find, Johnny! Your "other" galaxy is definitely a real spiral galaxy, and it is interacting with a smaller galaxy as well.

Ann

Yes, it's indubitably a pair of galaxies, unlike the debatable other "one".

Your "other" galaxy (or galaxies) strengthens my belief that the first object is also a galaxy, in spite of its strange double nucleus. Note how similar the objects are in size, color and morphology. That is exactly what we would expect if these two are galaxies of a similar size, morphology and dust content (or lack thereof), and at a similar distance from us.

Ann

but here HST portraits both cores as red

Click to view full size image 1 or image 2

two-cored - background galaxy 2 jwst.png

two-cored - background galaxy 2 hst.png

...

[VictorBorun]

I wonder have these three stars formed from the same proto-disk and do they remain bound?
The middle one seems to move ↙ from HST to JWST

Click to view full size image 1 or image 2

by the way the fourth bright dot (only in JWST) must be a background galaxy

two-cored - background galaxy 3 jwst.png

two-cored - background galaxy 3 hst.png

...

[Ann]

Yes, it's indubitably a pair of galaxies, unlike the debatable other "one".

Your "other" galaxy (or galaxies) strengthens my belief that the first object is also a galaxy, in spite of its strange double nucleus. Note how similar the objects are in size, color and morphology. That is exactly what we would expect if these two are galaxies of a similar size, morphology and dust content (or lack thereof), and at a similar distance from us.

Ann

but here HST portraits both cores as red

Click to view full size image 1 or image 2

two-cored - background galaxy 2 jwst.pngtwo-cored - background galaxy 2 hst.png

...

The galaxies look red in the HST image because they were (by far most strongly) detected by HST:s infrared filter.

Ann