Celestial Dance: Galactic Pair ESO 77-14 in Indus | Hubble Space Telescope

Celestial Dance: Galactic Pair ESO 77-14 in Indus | Hubble Space Telescope

This Hubble image of ESO 77-14 is a snapshot of a celestial dance performed by a pair of similar-sized galaxies. Two clear signatures of the gravitational tug of war between the galaxies are the bridge of material that connects them and the disruption of their main bodies. The galaxy on the right has a long, bluish arm while its companion has a shorter, redder arm. This interacting pair is in the constellation of Indus, the Indian, around 550 million light-years away from Earth. The dust lanes between the two galaxy centers show the extent of the distortion to the originally flat discs that have been pulled into three-dimensional shapes.

Credit: NASA, European Space Agency, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration and A. Evans (University of Virginia, Charlottesville/NRAO/Stony Brook University)  

Release Date: April 24, 2008

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