BRIGHT STAR OR GALAXY
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by 1001G
RADIO SOURCE GALAXYTO THE WEST OF RADIO SOURCE GALAXY IS WHAT SDSS CALLS A GALAXY.
IS IT A GALAXY OR A STAR.Posted
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by JeanTate in response to 1001G's comment.
It's a star, in our own galaxy.
With objects as bright as this, the automated SDSS image processing software gets confused, and sometimes thinks it's a galaxy! In many respects, the software is astonishingly good; in others, it can seem really silly.
In more detail: to this software, a 'galaxy' is basically a region in an image which is fuzzy, not like a nice round blob with a pretty sharp edge. A really bright star can create a large, fuzzy region, and so the software says 'GALAXY!'. For whatever reason, this software doesn't look for obvious signs of it being a star, such as the 'compass points' (technical term, 'diffraction spikes', or as I call them, diffspikes).
Posted