This image of a pair of interacting galaxies called Arp 273 was released to celebrate the 21st anniversary of the launch of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.
The distorted shape of the larger of the two galaxies shows signs of tidal interactions with the smaller of the two. It is thought that the smaller galaxy has actually passed through the larger one.
Arp 273 (UGC 1810, the larger spiral galaxy and UGC 1813, with intense star formation) lies 300 million light-years away in the Andromeda constellation.
UGC 1810 has a disk that is tidally distorted by the gravitational tidal pull of UGC 1813.
Credit:
NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Source :
hubblesite.org
spacetelescope.org
capella-observatory.com
annesastronomynews.com
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