Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Galaxy Pair NGC 3314

This image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and its Wide Field Planetary Camera 2
(WFPC2) shows the unique galaxy pair called NGC 3314. Through an extraordinary chance alignment, a face-0n spiral galaxy lies precisely
in front of another larger spiral. This line-up provides us with rare chance to visualize dark material within the front galaxy, seen only because it is silhouetted against the object behind it.