Image of Arp 13, also known as NGC 7448, from the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies by Halton Arp (1966).
In the original catalog, it was in the category: Spiral galaxies - Detached segments. NGC 7448 has a disk of tightly wound, clumpy, and particularly bright spiral arms.
A grainy, black and white image of a spiral galaxy with a small, bright, circular core. The poorly-defined spiral arms wind clockwise around the core. The galaxy is tilted slightly, so it forms an oval shape, rather than a circle. A few white dots, which are stars, are seen on the black background.
Image of Arp 16, also known as M66, from the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies by Halton Arp (1966).
In the original catalog, it was in the category: Spiral galaxies - Detached segments. M66 is a face-on spiral galaxy with a weak bar and loosely wound arms that are full of young star clusters.
A grainy, black and white image of a nearly face-on barred spiral galaxy. It has a bright core. Two spiral arms start at the center and extend outward, rotating clockwise. They are crossed by dark dust lanes. Several white dots, which are stars, are seen on the black background.
Composite image of Arp 25, also known as NGC 2276.
X-ray light from the Chandra X-ray Observatory is shown in pink, overlayed on a visible light image from the Hubble Space Telescope and the Digitized Sky Survey.
The insert shows an radio light image of an ultra-luminous X-ray source in one of the galaxy's spiral arms.
An X-ray and optical light view of the spiral galaxy NGC 2276. The galaxy has warped spiral arms that wrap clockwise around its bright yellow core. Toward the bottom left, one of its arms appears to be breaking away from the rest of the galaxy. Most of the galaxy is blue, but the left half of the galaxy is in shades of pink. An insert shows a radio view of on the of pink bright spots in the upper right part of the galaxy.
Two spiral galaxies fill the frame. The galaxy to the right is large and faint. It has a central bar and a loose, patchy ring of purple and blue star clusters. The left galaxy is smaller and brighter. It has two well-defined spiral arms, which spiral clockwise from a bright central point. The arms are dotted with bright white star clusters and outlined by dark dust lanes. The outer arms feature a less well defined haze of stars.
This image was taken as part of the PHANGS program. They take high-resolution observations of galaxies at many different wavelengths of light to learn how the small-scale details of how stars form influence the large-scale structures of galaxies.
A face-on barred spiral galaxy anchored by its central region, which has a bright blue central dot surrounded by a lighter diagonal blue bar structure made of a haze of stars, which forms an angled oval toward the top. The central core and bar fill about a third of the image. Two distinct spiny spiral arms made of stars, gas, and dust also start at the center, appearing brown or greenish within the blue bar, and extending to the edges, rotating clockwise in bright oranges. The brightest areas of the arms are two large arcs that start at the central region. The one at left stretches up to the top in a long arc and another at right extends toward the bottom. Scattered across the packed scene are bright blue pinpoints of light, which are stars spread throughout the galaxy. In areas where there is less orange, it is darker. A triangular area at bottom right is largely the black background of space.
Arp 220 is the aftermath of a collision between two spiral galaxies. The collision set off a burst of star formation, creating star clusters seen as bluish-white bright knots in this image.
This image is part of a collection of 59 images of merging galaxies released to celebrate Hubble's 18th anniversary in 2008.
An irregularly shaped galaxy fills most of the frame. The center is brighter, filled with a blue-white haze of stars that backlights a horizontal band of brown dust. Another area to the left of the core, almost as bright as the center is filled with a similar haze of stars and dotted with blue star clusters. To the right, the galaxy is less bright and more transparent. A faint hazy line extends almost vertically from the top of the galaxy. The black background of space is filled with stars and tiny background galaxies.
JWST NIRCam and MIRI image of Arp 107, also known as UGC 5984.
In the near-infrared, we see older stars in white, as well as the bridge of gas and stars that runs between the galaxies. In the mid-infrared, we see young stars and star-forming regions in orange and red. The point of the collision between the two galaxies, is marked by the gap at the top of the spiral.
A pair of interacting galaxies. The larger of the two is slightly right of center. It is a one-armed spiral galaxy with a hazy, bright, white center and a ring of gaseous filaments, which are different shades of red and orange. The single spiral arm begins at about the 7 o'clock position and spirals counterclockwise to the 12 o'clock position, forming a ring structure. Toward the bottom left and right of the ring are filaments of gas spiraling inward toward the core. At the top left of the ring, at the 11 o'clock position, is a noticeable gap, bordered by two large, orange pockets of dust and gas. The smaller elliptical galaxy to its left is made of hazy white gas and dust, which becomes more diffuse farther away from its center. To this galaxy’s bottom left, there is a smaller, more diffuse gas cloud that wafts outward toward the edges. Many red, orange, and white galaxies are spread throughout the background, with some hazier in composition and others having defined spiral patterns.
IC 883 is likely the remnant of the merger of two disk galaxies, since it has two tidal tails. This cosmic train wreck appears to have triggered a burst of star formation, creating the bright star clusters seen in the center.
In the center of the frame is a roughly oval-shaped galaxy merger remnant, made out of a swirling blue-white haze of stars and gas. Crossing the center of the remnant is a dark brown filament of dust. Emerging from the remnant are two tidal tails, long thin lines of gas and stars. They are approximately the same length emerging at nearly right angles: one diagonally to the top right of the frame and the other to the bottom right. . Scattered across the background there are foreground stars and background galaxies of various sizes.
JWST NIRCam and MIRI image of Arp 142, also known as NGC 2936, NGC 2937, and UGC 5130, or the Penguin and the Egg.
The Penguin is a spiral galaxy whose shape has been distorted by the gravity of the elliptical Egg galaxy. The two are about 100,000 light-years apart and completed a close pass between 25 and 75 million years ago.
Arp 142, two interacting galaxies, observed in near- and mid-infrared light. At left is NGC 2937, nicknamed the Egg. Its center is brighter and whiter. There are six diffraction spikes atop its gauzy blue layers. At right is NGC 2936, nicknamed the Penguin. Its beak-like region points toward and above the Egg. Where the eye would be is a small, opaque yellow spiral. The Penguin’s distorted arms and orange dust lanes from the bird’s beak, back, and tail. The tail is wide and layered, like a beta fish’s tail. A semi-transparent blue hue traces the Penguin and extends from the galaxy, creating an upside-down U over top of both galaxies. At top right is another galaxy seen from the side, pointing roughly at a 45-degree angle. It is largely light blue. Its length appears approximately as long as the Egg’s height. One foreground star with large, bright blue diffraction spikes appears over top of the galaxy and another near it. The entire black background is filled with tiny, extremely distant galaxies.
Spitzer, VLA, and CFHT MegaCam image of Arp 94, also known as NGC 3226 and NGC 3227.
The grayscale Canada France Hawaii Telescope image shows visible starlight. Blue is cool hydrogen gas in radio light from the Very Large Array. Red is warm gas and dust in infrared light from Spitzer.
The blue filament of warm gas floods into the top galaxy shuts down star formation.
Two interacting galaxies appear on a field of stars. A black and white image of the galaxies taken in visible light is overlaid with radio (blue) and infrared (pink) images. The bottom galaxy is a large spiral. It is tilted slightly, so that its disk forms an oval rather than a circle. The top galaxy is a bright elliptical galaxy. It is oval shaped with a bright center that gets gradually fainter and more transparent towards its edges. A plume of gas and stars surrounds and appears to rise from the galaxies, like smoke from a campfire. The blue radio light snakes around the outside of the spiral galaxy, through the elliptical galaxy and into the plume, forming a teardrop shape. The pink infrared light highlights the centers of the spiral and elliptical galaxies.
One of NGC 772’s spiral arms is particularly prominent. This is likely due to gravitational interactions with its companion galaxy NGC 770, the small elliptical galaxy in the center near the top of the frame. The interactions left NGC 772's bottom arm elongated and asymmetrical.
A nearly face-on spiral galaxy is in the center of the frame. Appearing somewhat like an aerial view of a hurricane, the galaxy's spiral arms swirl around a bright yellow-white center. The curling arms are defined by dark brown dust lanes. While the arms in the upper portion of the galaxy are somewhat poorly defined, in the bottom of the galaxy, one overdeveloped spiral arm curves counter-clockwise from about 3 o'clock to about 8 o'clock. Since this arm flattens out near its end, in contrast to the rounder upper arms, the overall shape of the galaxy resembles a paisley. In the center of the frame, near the top, is its small companion galaxy, seen as a fuzzy oval. The black background of space is filled with tiny background galaxies and foreground stars.
Hubble and NuStar image of Arp 299, also known as NGC 3690.
NuSTAR data overlaid on a Hubble image of the interacting galaxy pair show the galaxy on the right has an active supermassive black hole. It is accreting the surrounding gas and glowing brightly in X-rays.
Two merging galaxies form an abstract shape, which looks a little like an upside down rubber duck. Within the "head" and "body" of the duck are crossed brown swirls, which are dust and gas. The outside of the duck is outlined with hazy yellow swirls, which are streams of stars. Near the "neck" of the duck, at the point where the two merging galaxies touch, and slightly to the right is a bright white blob, surrounded by pink blobs. This is X-ray light from NuStar, which shows emission from an active supermassive black hole in the right galaxy.