We all have those days, amirite?:

Compared to most spiral galaxies, this one looks a little lopsided. The classic, centered shape of spiral galaxies is one with a bulge of older stars in the middle and arms of young stars swirling outward. In this case, a neighboring galaxy is tugging this one’s blue arms off to the right.

Captured by @NASAHubble, this dueling pair is located 120 million light-years away in the constellation Cepheus. It is not uncommon for galaxies to come close enough to engage in a celestial tug-of-war. Galaxies are not solid objects, so gravitational pull distorts their shape in a manner similar to pulling off a piece of cotton candy.

Image description: A large spiral galaxy takes up most of the image, skewed so that its center stretches towards its upper left. We see it face-on as a mix of cool blue and whitish-yellow light, with smoky brown dust lining its blue, spiraling arms. In the background, orange and white stars and galaxies dot the blackness of space.

Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI, Paul Sell (University of Florida)

[ NASA Share this information : ]

02 December 2023