The Tadpole Galaxy, also known as UGC 10214[3] and Arp 188,[4] is a disrupted barred spiral galaxy located 143.6 megaparsecs (468.4 million light-years) from Earth in the northern constellation Draco. Its most dramatic feature is a trail of stars, and it has a D25.0 isophotal diameter of 171 kiloparsecs (558,000 light-years) long. Its size has been attributed to a merger with a smaller galaxy that is believed to have occurred about 100 million years ago.[5] The galaxy is filled with bright blue star clusters triggered by the merger, some containing as many as one million stars.[3] It is one of the largest known disrupted spiral galaxies of its sort.
It is hypothesized that a more compact intruder galaxy crossed in front of the Tadpole Galaxy—from left to right from the perspective of Earth—and was slung around behind the Tadpole by their mutual gravitational attraction. During this close encounter, tidal forces drew out the spiral galaxy’s stars, gases and dust, forming the conspicuous tail. The intruder galaxy, estimated to lie about 300,000 light-years behind the Tadpole, can be seen through foreground spiral arms at the upper left. Following its terrestrial namesake, the Tadpole Galaxy will likely lose its tail as it grows older; the tail’s star clusters forming smaller satellites of the large spiral galaxy.[6]
An image of the galaxy was taken by Hubble‘s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) in April 2002, containing 6000 background galaxies spanning billions of light-years.[3]
Supernovae
Two supernovae are known to have occurred in the Tadpole Galaxy.
- SN 2007cu (Type II, mag. 18.9) was discovered by the Lick Observatory Supernova Search (LOSS) on June 27, 2007.[7][8]
- SN 2008dq (Type Ic, mag. 18.3) was discovered by LOSS on June 25, 2008.[9][10][11]
See also
Notes
References
- ^ a b c d e f UGC 10214
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k UGC 10214 on NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database
- ^ a b c “The Tadpole Galaxy: Distorted Victim of Cosmic Collision”. HubbleSite.org. Retrieved 2022-10-28.
- ^ “The Tadpole Galaxy from Hubble”. Science Mission Directorate. Archived from the original on 2023-02-28. Retrieved 2022-12-23.
- ^ Tadpole Galaxy | StarDate Online
- ^ “Arp 188 and the Tadpole’s Tidal Tail”. Astronomy Picture of the Day. Retrieved 2023-06-14.
- ^ Joubert, N.; Li, W. (2007). “Supernovae 2007ct and 2007cu”. Central Bureau Electronic Telegrams (988): 1. Bibcode:2007CBET..988….1J.
- ^ “SN 2007cu”. Transient Name Server. IAU. Retrieved 6 December 2025.
- ^ Leja, J.; Li, W.; Filippenko, A. V. (2008). “Supernova 2008dq in UGC 10214”. Central Bureau Electronic Telegrams (1417): 1. Bibcode:2008CBET.1417….1L.
- ^ “SN 2008dq”. Transient Name Server. IAU. Retrieved 6 December 2025.
- ^ “List of Supernovae”. CBAT. Retrieved 2022-12-23.
External links
Media related to Tadpole Galaxy at Wikimedia Commons- NASA – This article contains text from NASA, which is in the public domain.
- ESA/Hubble Release
