Cosmic Art #4: A Rose Made of Galaxies

A Rose Made of Galaxies

Week 4 of my weekly post that I'm calling Cosmic Art. Our amazing universe has fascinated me since I was a child. I have been fortunate enough to have worked at NASA for almost a decade and have witnessed first hand the incredible achievements we as humans can accomplish. These posts are dedicated to the men and women who made these stunning images possible.

This image of a pair of interacting galaxies called Arp 273 was released to celebrate the 21st anniversary of the launch of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

The distorted shape of the larger of the two galaxies shows signs of tidal interactions with the smaller of the two. It is thought that the smaller galaxy has actually passed through the larger one. The galaxies are approximately 300 million light years away from Earth in the constellation Andromeda.

Image Credit: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Content Source: spacetelescope.org