This image taken using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) shows Arp 107, a celestial
object that includes a pair of galaxies in the midst of a collision. The larger
object (left) is an extremely energetic type of galaxy called a Seyfert galaxy.
Seyfert galaxies house active galactic nuclei at their cores. Despite the
active core’s immense brightness, it does not saturate the image and mask
details in the galaxy’s structure. We can observe radiation from the entire
galaxy, including its spiraling whorls, areas of star formation, and dust
lanes. The whole galaxy is readily visible. The smaller companion (right)
connects to the larger galaxy by a tenuous seeming ‘bridge’ of dust and gas.
The colliding galactic duo lies about 465 million light-years from Earth.
Arp 107 is part of the Atlas of Peculiar
Galaxies, a catalog of 338 galaxies compiled in 1966 by Halton Arp. Hubble
captured the galactic pair as part of a program that took observations of Arp
catalog members. One intention of the observing program was to provide images
of these spectacular and not-easily-defined galaxies.
Text credit: European Space Agency (ESA)
Image credit:
ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Dalcanton
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