This week’s Hubble Space Telescope image shows two of a group of three interacting galaxies called Arp 248. This first group, also known as Wild’s Triplet, consists of three small spiral galaxies connected by star bridges.
Located 200 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo, it is named after Australian astronomer Paul Wilde, a leading solar researcher who studied the group in the 1950s, Digitartlends reports.
Interacting galaxies are those whose gravitational fields interact with each other. In this case, the gravitational bond between the three galaxies together led to clear bridges between the two galaxies in this image.
The bridge glows with starlight and also contains dust and stars that form an elongated region called the tide tail, which is made up of galaxies that attract each other.
Hubble recently shared a series of images of interacting galaxies, including two more detailed spiral galaxies, as well as a pair of galaxies that appear to interact but actually overlap because they are closer to us than the others.
The full drama of galaxy merging can be seen in the stunning Gemini North Telescope image or James Webb’s latest image showing the conspicuous effects of infrared merging.
