Hubble
Interacting Galaxy ESO 255-7
Interacting Galaxies
RA 06h 27m 22.81s Dec -47° 10' 46.2"
Puppis
500 million light-years (150 million parsecs)
April 18, 2002
36 minutes
F435W (B) and F814W (I)
NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration, and A. Evans (U of Virginia, Charlottesville/NRAO/Stony Brook University)
April 24, 2008
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ABOUT THIS IMAGE:
ESO 255-7 consists of a quartet of interacting galaxies. Three or four galaxies are embedded in a common structure with an arc-like shape. The upper part of this structure appears almost like one single galaxy but has in fact two component galaxies. The lowest galaxy is substantially obscured by dust. The interacting group is about 550 million light-years away from Earth, in the constellation of Puppis, the Stern.
This
image is part of a large collection of 59 images of merging galaxies taken
by the Hubble Space Telescope and released on the occasion of its 18th
anniversary on April 24, 2008.