Interacting Galaxies
Pair- RA 18h 12m 54.7s Dec 68° 21' 48.99"
NGC 6621 - (RA 18h 12m 59.9s, Dec +68° 21' 15")
NGC 6622 - (RA 18h 12m 55.6s, Dec +68° 21' 47")
Draco
300 million light-years (100 million parsecs)
NGC 6621-15.0, NGC 6622-13.6
NGC 6621- 0.85 x 0.65 arcmin, NGC 6622- 1.7 x 1.0 arcmin
March 15, 1999
1.4 hours
F435W (B) and F814W (I)
NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration, and W. Keel (University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa)
April 24, 2008
ABOUT THIS IMAGE:
NGC 6621/2 (VV 247, Arp 81) is a strongly interacting pair of galaxies, seen about 100 million years after their closest approach. It consists of NGC 6621 (to the left) and NGC 6622 (to the right). NGC 6621 is the larger of the two, and is a very disturbed spiral galaxy. The encounter has pulled a long tail out of NGC 6621 that has now wrapped behind its body. The collision has also triggered extensive star formation between the two galaxies. Scientists believe that Arp 81 has a richer collection of young massive star clusters than the notable Antennae galaxies (which are much closer than Arp 81). The pair is located in the constellation of Draco, approximately 300 million light-years away from Earth. Arp 81 is the 81st galaxy in Arp's Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies. They were both discovered on June 2, 1885 by Lewis and Edward Swift.
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.