Another beatiful and peculiar galaxy shot from the dark and remote skies of Nerpio, Spain, using the setup shared with Samuel Diaz, a GSO 12-inch RC reflector, and an Atik 4000 CCD on top of a Paramount MX mount.
Arp 78 is an unbarred spiral galaxy approximately 130 million light-years away in the constellation Aries.
Around 200,000 light years in diameter, it is twice the size of the Milky Way Galaxy, and is surrounded by several satellite galaxies – including the dwarf elliptical, NGC 770 – whose tidal forces on the larger galaxy have likely caused the emergence of a single elongated outer spiral arm that is much more developed than the others arms. Halton Arp described it as a “Spiral galaxy with a small high-surface brightness companion”.
Two supernovae (SN 2003 hl & SN 2003 iq) have been observed in Arp 78.
Arp 78 probably has a H II nucleus, but it may be a transitional object.
The image can be seen on AstroBin too, of course, here.
Text adapted from Wikipedia.