Hubble telescope spots colliding galaxies about 465 million light-years from Earth

This latest picture from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows Arp 107, a pair of colliding galaxies that lie about 465 million light-years from Earth.

Arp 107 was observed by Hubble as part of an observing programme that specifically sought to fill in an observational gap by taking limited observations of members of the Arp catalogue. The observation was aimed at providing the public with images of these spectacular and not-easily-defined galaxies.

In this Hubble image, the larger galaxy on the left is an extremely energetic galaxy type called a Seyfert galaxy. Powered by their active cores, Seyfert galaxies are an extremely energetic class of galaxies known as active galactic nuclei (AGNs).

The smaller companion on the right is connected to the larger galaxy by a tenuous-seeming bridge composed of dust and gas. Also visible in this celestial landscape are a few small stars and galaxies.

Our ESA/Hubble Picture of the Week features Arp 107, a pair of colliding galaxies located 465 million light-years from Earth 🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/kKU0r3YYcm

— HUBBLE (@HUBBLE_space) September 18, 2023

Arp 107 is part of a catalogue of 338 galaxies known as the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies - a gallery of weird and wonderful galaxies containing peculiar structures, featuring galaxies exhibiting everything from segmented spiral arms to concentric rings.