Image: Hubble spots squabbling galactic siblings
A dramatic triplet of galaxies takes center stage in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, which captures a three-way gravitational tug-of-war between interacting galaxies. This system—known as Arp 195—is featured in the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, a list which showcases some of the weirder and more wonderful galaxies in the universe.
Observing time with Hubble is extremely valuable, so astronomers don’t want to waste a second. The schedule for Hubble observations is calculated using a computer algorithm which allows the spacecraft to occasionally gather bonus snapshots of data between longer observations.
This image of the clashing triplet of galaxies in Arp 195 is one such snapshot.
Extra observations such as these do more than provide spectacular images—they also help to identify promising targets to follow up with using telescopes such as the upcoming NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope.
Source:https://www.nasa.gov/goddard
Image: Hubble spots squabbling
Image: Hubble views galaxy host to two supernovae
Approximately 85 million light-years from Earth, in the constellation of Libra, is the beautiful galaxy NGC 5861, captured here by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.
NGC 5861 is an intermediate spiral galaxy. Astronomers classify most galaxies by their morphology. For example, the Milky Way galaxy is a barred spiral galaxy. An intermediate spiral galaxy has a shape lying in between that of a barred spiral galaxy (one that appears to have a central bar-shaped structure) and that of an unbarred spiral galaxy (one without a central bar).
Two supernovae, SN1971D and SN2017erp, have been observed in the galaxy. Supernovae are powerful and luminous explosions that can temporarily shine brighter than any other star in the night sky. The brightest supernova ever recorded was possibly SN 1006, which exploded in our own Milky Way galaxy and shone 16 times as bright as Venus from April 30 to May 1, 1006 AD.