Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA
Acknowledgement: Luca Limatola
Acknowledgement: Luca Limatola
At first glance, this Hubble picture appears to capture two space
colossi entangled in a fierce celestial battle, with two galaxies
entwined and merging to form one. But this shows just how easy it is to
misinterpret the jumble of sparkling stars and get the wrong impression —
as it’s all down to a trick of perspective.
By chance, these galaxies appear to be aligned from our point of
view. In the foreground, the irregular dwarf galaxy PGC 16389 — seen
here as a cloud of stars — covers its neighbouring galaxy APMBGC
252+125-117, which appears edge-on as a streak. This wide-field image
also captures many other more distant galaxies, including a quite
prominent face-on spiral towards the right of the picture.
A version of this image was entered into the Hubble’s Hidden Treasures image processing competition by contestant Luca Limatola.
Source: ESA/Hubble - Space Telescope
