The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a gorgeous photo of the interacting starburst galaxy system NGC 6052.
This image from Hubble shows the interacting star-forming galaxy system NGC 6052, which is located 228 million light-years from Earth. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Judy Schmidt, www.geckzilla.com.
NGC 6052, also known as Mrk 297, LEDA 57039 and Arp 209, is an interacting system located at a distance of 228 million light-years in the constellation of Hercules.
According to astronomers, this object is the result of a merger of two disk galaxies with similar masses.
As the merging process continues, stars are thrown out of their original orbits and placed onto entirely new paths.
Since the stars produce the light astronomers see, NGC 6052 appears to have a very chaotic shape.
Eventually, this system will settle down into a stable shape, which may not resemble either of the two original disk galaxies.
This image includes optical and ultraviolet observations from Hubble’s Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2).
Amateur astronomer Judy Schmidt submitted a version of the image to the Hubble’s Hidden Treasures image processing competition.
