Hubble
Interacting Galaxy IRAS 21101
Interacting Galaxies
RA 21h 11m 28.92s Dec 58° 23' 3.59"
Cepheus
500 million light-years (150 million parsecs)
November 2, 2001
38 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:
This system named IRAS 21101+5810 is an interacting galaxy pair. The interaction has disturbed both galaxies: the lower galaxy has a bizarre structure and a tidal tail emerges from the main body of the upper galaxy. The galaxy pair lies in a crowded field of Milky Way stars. IRAS 21101+5810 is located in the constellation of Cepheus, the King, about 550 million light-years away from Earth.
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.