A bridge in space? Hubble snaps two large galaxies connected by luminous bridge

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured this galactic triplet Arp 248, also known as Wild's Triplet, which lies around 200 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo. As the name suggests, it is a group of three interacting spiral galaxies.

In this Hubble image, two large spiral galaxies - a mix of pale blue and yellow in colour - flank a smaller, unrelated spiral galaxy and seem to be connected by a luminous bridge. This elongated stream of stars and interstellar dust is known as a tidal tail, which was formed by the mutual gravitational attraction of the two foreground galaxies.

This picture was shared by the European Space Agency (ESA) and was captured using Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS).

"Hubble used its Advanced Camera for Surveys to scour this menagerie of eccentric galaxies in search of promising candidates for future observations with the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, and Hubble itself. With such a wealth of astronomical objects to study in the night sky, projects such as this, which guide future observations, are a valuable investment of observing time," ESA wrote in a post.

1/ This Hubble picture of the week shows two galaxies in the galactic triplet Arp 248 or Wild’s Triplet. The two large spiral galaxies visible in this image flank a smaller, unrelated spiral galaxy and appear connected by a luminous bridge. Read more: https://t.co/hINvw4pbfS pic.twitter.com/9EcSWxOAs3

— HUBBLE (@HUBBLE_space) October 31, 2022