Interacting Galaxies
RA 23h 16m 0.79s Dec 25° 33' 26.7"
Pegasus
350 million light-years (100 million parsecs)
HST>ACS/WFC
August 15, 2002
33 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
ABOUT
THIS IMAGE:
IC 5298 is a beautiful face-on spiral galaxy with two long arms extending from the central bulge and curving back amongst the scattered stars, gas and dust. A nearby smaller companion is linked by a bridge of matter to the principal galaxy in an interaction reminiscent of the famous Whirlpool Galaxy, M51. There is also a third faint, irregular galaxy, visible at the top of the image that is also linked by a bridge of matter and probably involved in the interaction.
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.