Hubble captures a formation of galaxies neatly lined up

By Georgina Torbet December 16, 2023

Sometimes, Hubble or other telescopes will capture two or more galaxies that are in the process of merging — called interacting galaxies. These huge collisions can warp one or both of the galaxies, twisting them into strange shapes. The results of such collisions can be catastrophic, with one of the galaxies being destroyed. Or they can be creative, with one larger galaxy being formed from the two merging galaxies.

However, sometimes galaxies that appear very close in images are not actually interacting. Sometimes, they merely appear to be close when seen from Earth, but they can actually be thousands of light-years apart. That’s the case with a previous Hubble image showing two overlapping galaxies.

The latest Hubble image shows an interesting mix, which is a twist on this premise: it features both an interacting galaxy system and a string of galaxies that happen to line up in a neat procession.

An interacting galaxy system known as Arp-Madore 2105-332, that lies about 200 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Microscopium. — This image features an interacting galaxy system known as Arp-Madore 2105-332, that lies about 200 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Microscopium. Like other recent Hubble Pictures of the Week, this system belongs to the Arp-Madore catalog of peculiar galaxies. The wonderful quality of this image also reveals several further galaxies, not associated with this system but fortuitously positioned in such a way that they appear to be forming a line that approaches the leftmost (in this image) component of Arp-Madore 2105-332, which is known individually as 2MASX J21080752-3314337. The rightmost galaxy, meanwhile, is known as 2MASX J21080362-3313196. These hefty names do not lend themselves to easy memorization, but they do actually contain valuable information: They are coordinates in the right ascension and declination system used widely by astronomers to locate astronomical objects. ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Dalcanton; CC BY 4.0 Acknowledgement: L. Shatz

The interacting galaxies are called Arp-Madore 2105-332 and are located 200 million light-years away. Even though the two look fairly far apart in this image, with one in the middle and one to the right of the frame, they are close enough in galactic terms to be affecting each other gravitationally. Beneath the leftmost part of the galaxy pair is a string of other galaxies lined up purely by coincidence.

The interacting galaxies are named Arp-Madore because of the catalog they are named in, which collects together unusual galaxies known as peculiar galaxies. Among these peculiar galaxies are those that have been pulled into unusual shapes due to mergers or are in the process of interacting. Peculiar galaxies can have one spiral arm brighter than the others, or two supermassive black holes at their center, or be affected by a nearby satellite galaxy, or even be a stunning ring shape.

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Georgina Torbet

Space Writer

Georgina is the Digital Trends space writer, covering human space exploration, planetary science, and cosmology. She…

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