Interacting Galaxies
RA 13 15 34.50 Dec +62 07 33.9
Ursa Major
400 million light-years (150 million parsecs)
ACS/WFC
May 10, 2002
36 minutes
F435W (B) and F814W (I)
NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage-ESA/Hubble Collaboration, and A. Evans (U of Virginia, Charlottesville/NRAO/Stony Brook Univ.)
April 24, 2008
ABOUT THIS IMAGE:
UGC 8335 is a strongly interacting pair of spiral galaxies resembling two ice skaters. The interaction has united the galaxies via a bridge of material and has yanked two strongly curved tails of gas and stars from the outer parts of their bodies . Both galaxies show dust lanes in their centers. UGC 8335 is located in the constellation of Ursa Major, the Great Bear, about 400 million light-years from Earth. It is the 238th galaxy in Arp's Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies.
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 24th April 2008.