November 21, 2005
The group of galaxies was known as a Compact Group since 1977 by J.A. Rose, under the designation Rose 34. Robert's Quartet is also known under the less poetic name of AM 0018-485 from the Catalogue of Southern Peculiar Galaxies and Associations, compiled in 1987 by astronomers Halton "Chip" Arp and Barry Madore. But who is Robert then? As discovered by Australian amateur astronomer Mike Kerr, Arp and Madore named Robert's Quartet after Robert Freedman who generated many of the updated positions of galaxies in the catalogue. The astronomers clearly had a very good sense of humour as the catalogue also contains a system of galaxies called Wendy (ESO 147- 8; for Wendy Freedman) and another called the Conjugal galaxy (ESO 384- 53)!
Topics: Robert's Quartet, Phoenix constellation, Galaxy clusters, Robert Freedman, Halton Arp, NGC 87, Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, Barred spiral galaxies, Galaxy