Interacting Galaxies
RA 01h 51m 14.38s Dec 22° 34' 58.69"
Aries
400 million light-years (150 million parsecs)
12.8
30" x 24"
August 22, 2001
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:
NGC 695 is a peculiar galaxy which looks like a revolving tornado. It is a disturbed spiral galaxy, seen face-on, with loosely wound spiral arms. Knotty star-forming regions are tangled in a mesh of dust and gas. NGC 695 is in an interaction with a small companion located just outside the image to the left. Scientists believe that this is a recent but relatively weak interaction. NGC 695 is located in the constellation of Aries, the Ram, about 450 million light-years away from Earth. It was discovered on Nov 13, 1786 by William Herschel.
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.