Pan of Galaxy Merger Arp-Madore 417-391 in Eridanus | Hubble

Pan of Galaxy Merger Arp-Madore 417-391 in Eridanus | Hubble

The galaxy merger Arp-Madore 417-391 is the spotlight in this image from the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope. The Arp-Madore catalogue is a collection of particularly peculiar galaxies spread throughout the southern sky, and includes a collection of subtly interacting galaxies as well as more spectacular colliding galaxies. Arp-Madore 417-391 lies around 670 million light-years away in the constellation Eridanus in the southern celestial hemisphere. It is one such galactic collision. The two galaxies have been distorted by gravity and twisted into a colossal ring, leaving the cores of the two galaxies nestled side by side.

Hubble used its Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) to capture this scene—the instrument is optimized to hunt for galaxies and galaxy clusters in the ancient Universe. Hubble’s ACS has been contributing to scientific discovery for 20 years, and throughout its lifetime it has been involved in everything from mapping the distribution of dark matter to studying the evolution of galaxy clusters.

Image Description: Two galaxies right of center form a ring shape. The ring is narrow and blue, and the cores of the two galaxies form a bulge on the ring’s side. A bright, orange star lies above the ring. Two smaller spiral galaxies appear left of center, as well as a few stars. The background is black and speckled with very small stars and galaxies.

Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA, J. Dalcanton

Duration: 30 seconds

Release Date: Nov. 21, 2022

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