NHC 1427A - a LMC type irregular in the Fornax Cluster

NGC 1427A is the brightest irregular galaxy in the Fornax Cluster.
In our work we investigate the morphological properties of NGC 1427A, its stellar content, such as OB associations and young clusters, X-ray properties and evolutionary state.

NGC 1427A is comparable in size, luminosity and color to the LMC. Both galaxies show striking signs of recent star formation. In the LMC the star formation is thought to be triggered by interaction with the Milky Way. The question, wether such a scenario also is valid for NGC 1427A, is subject of our research. Possible interaction partners could be the central Fornax galaxies NGC 1404 or NGC 1399 and its large extended cD halo. Alternatively one might think of a collision of NGC 1427A with an intergalactic gas cloud or with a dwarf galaxy.

You are interested? See our preprint `` NGC 1427A - an LMC type galaxy in the Fornax Cluster'', 1997, A&A 327, 562 (as a gzipped .ps file [528k], please add ".gz" after downloading).