This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features a
peculiar spiral galaxy called Arp 184 or NGC 1961.
ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Dalcanton, R. J. Foley (UC
Santa Cruz), C. Kilpatrick
A beautiful but skewed spiral galaxy
dazzles in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image. The galaxy, called Arp 184 or NGC 1961, sits about 190
million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Camelopardalis (The
Giraffe).
The name Arp 184 comes from the Atlas of
Peculiar Galaxies compiled by astronomer Halton Arp in 1966. It holds 338
galaxies that are oddly shaped and tend to be neither entirely elliptical nor
entirely spiral-shaped. Many of the galaxies are in the process of interacting
with other galaxies, while others are dwarf galaxies without well-defined
structures. Arp 184 earned its spot in the catalog thanks to its single broad,
star-speckled spiral arm that appears to stretch toward us. The galaxy’s far
side sports a few wisps of gas and stars, but it lacks a similarly impressive
spiral arm.
This Hubble image combines data from
three Snapshot observing programs, which are short observations that slotted
into time gaps between other proposals. One of the three programs targeted Arp
184 for its peculiar appearance. This program surveyed galaxies listed in the
Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies as well as A Catalogue of Southern Peculiar Galaxies
and Associations, a similar catalog compiled by Halton Arp and Barry Madore.
The remaining two Snapshot programs looked at the aftermath of fleeting astronomical events like supernovae and tidal disruption events — like when a supermassive black hole rips a star apart after it wanders too closely. Since Arp 184 hosted four known supernovae in the past three decades, it is a rich target for a supernova hunt.
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