Interacting Galaxies
RA 13h 1m 50.98s Dec. 04° 19' 59.09"
Virgo
500 million light-years (150 million parsecs)
HST>ACS/WFC
December 22, 2001
33 minutes
F435W (B) and F814W (I)
NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration & A. Evans (U of Virginia, Charlottesville/NRAO/Stony Brook University)
April 24, 2008
ABOUT
THIS IMAGE:
VV 283 looks like a single peculiar galaxy, but is in fact a pair of merging galaxies. A tidal tail swirls out from a messy central region and splits into two branches. The upward twisting branch is brightened by luminous blue star knots. Like many merging systems, VV 283 is a very luminous infrared system, radiating nearly one thousand billion times energy more than our Sun. VV 283 is located in the constellation of Virgo, the Maiden, some 500 million light-years away.
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.