Overlapping Galaxies
Hubble Space Telescope has captured the rare alignment of two spiral galaxies along the same line of sight. The outer rim of a small, foreground galaxy is silhouetted in front of a larger background galaxy. Dark tentacles of dust can be seen extending beyond the small galaxy's disk of starlight.
Such outer dark dusty structures, which appear to be devoid of stars are rarely so visible in a galaxy because there is usually nothing behind them to illuminate them. Astronomers have never seen dust this far beyond the visible edge of a galaxy. They do not know if these dusty structures are common features in galaxies.
Most of the stars speckled across this image belong to the large nearby spiral galaxy NGC 253, which is out of view to the right. Astronomers were using Hubble to image NGC 253 when they spied the two galaxies in the background. From ground-based telescopes, the two galaxies are indistinguishable from one another. The pair is designated 2MASX J00482185-2507365.
For more information, visit: hubblesite.org/image/2403/news_release/2008-33
Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA);
Acknowledgment: B. Holwerda (Space Telescope Science Institute) and J. Dalcanton (University of Washington)
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Overlapping Galaxies
Hubble Space Telescope has captured the rare alignment of two spiral galaxies along the same line of sight. The outer rim of a small, foreground galaxy is silhouetted in front of a larger background galaxy. Dark tentacles of dust can be seen extending beyond the small galaxy's disk of starlight.
Such outer dark dusty structures, which appear to be devoid of stars are rarely so visible in a galaxy because there is usually nothing behind them to illuminate them. Astronomers have never seen dust this far beyond the visible edge of a galaxy. They do not know if these dusty structures are common features in galaxies.
Most of the stars speckled across this image belong to the large nearby spiral galaxy NGC 253, which is out of view to the right. Astronomers were using Hubble to image NGC 253 when they spied the two galaxies in the background. From ground-based telescopes, the two galaxies are indistinguishable from one another. The pair is designated 2MASX J00482185-2507365.
For more information, visit: hubblesite.org/image/2403/news_release/2008-33
Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA);
Acknowledgment: B. Holwerda (Space Telescope Science Institute) and J. Dalcanton (University of Washington)
Find us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube