After 19 years of service, the Hubble Space Telescope continues to send fantastic images of exotic celestial objects such as these interacting galaxies.
This group of galaxies, known as Arp 194 is 600 million light years away from Earth in the constellation Cepheus. There are three galaxies in the image: Two are colliding at the top and the third in the lower part of the image is actually in the background.
The glowing trail that appears to link the galaxies is more than 100,000 light years long and is made of gas, dust and blue-colored star clusters that themselves may contain dozens of smaller clusters of young stars. The arm was stretched out as the galaxies ran into each other and their gravitational forces interacted.
Since it was launched in 1990, Hubble has made more than 880,000 observations and taken more than 570,000 images of 29,000 different celestial objects. The final shuttle mission to service the telescope is scheduled for May after several delays.
See Also:
- Astronomers Find Hidden Exoplanet in Hubble's Dustbin
- Hubble Snaps Image of Triple Galaxy, as Ordered by the People
- Hubble Captures Image of Strange Giant Galaxy
- Hubble Monitors Spectacular Black Hole Flare
- 'When Galaxies Collide'- 59 New Hubble Images Released
- Oh, Hubble, Can This Really Be the End?
- Hubble Captures Images of Rare Mammoth Stars
- Shuttle Dodges Space Junk Risk
- Hubble to Finally Get Some Astronaut Love
Image: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
