Real galaxy pile-up!
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by JeanTate
I wonder how many of these galaxies are within the extended stellar reaches of the giant elliptical (no doubt a cD), and how many are merely projected onto it? Sure is a cool sight. 😄 Centered on SDSS J141735.53+020311.5:
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by ivywong scientist, admin
You can approximate their relative positions using their spectroscopic redshifts but peculiar motions will confuse matters 😃
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by JeanTate in response to ivywong's comment.
Now if they were galaxies with lots of (cold) gas (plasma) and dust, their colors and spectra - especially if taken with an IFU - might help to sort out which are 'in front' and which 'behind'; however, as they're (almost) all ETGs, little chance of that! 😦
Though some may be foreground Milky Way stars, which spectra could easily differentiate ...
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by 42jkb scientist, admin in response to JeanTate's comment.
You would be better to hit this up with a long slit spectrograph as you could get them all in one go.
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