Overlapping Galaxies: Arp 274, Cluster Of Galaxies, Forms Stunning Sight (PHOTOS)

These galaxies might not necessarily be touching, but they're pretty close from where we're seeing them.

The cluster, known as Arp 274 or the NGC 5679 group, is actually three separate galaxies captured in one shot by NASA's Hubble telescope. The image, which was taken by the Hubble Telescope in April, captures a cluster that sits about 400 million light-years from Earth, in the constellation Virgo.

While the largest of the three galaxies is the center one (all three lie at different distances and may be different sizes respectively due to spacing), the outer galaxies are both forming stars at an incredibly high rate. Blue, visible and infrared filters, as well as a filter that isolates hydrogen emission, were used by Hubble’s Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 to capture the shot. Because of this, the blue knots in these two galaxies indicate the growth of new stars, highlighted by the presence of hydrogen.

Older yellowish stars can be seen in the centers of each galaxy.

Arp 274 was previously been photographed with less detail, and was featured as NASA's Image Of The Day.

Recently, an image was presented of two galaxies colliding to form what appeared to be an exclamation point in Space.

Comments

[bluesdog1]

06:46 AM on 09/05/2011

At first, I thought they were a picture of Madonnas new outfit.

[ProudToBeVeryLiberal]

11:55 PM on 09/02/2011

Remember how the Bush administration wanted to stop maintenance of the Hubble Space Telescope and shut it down. It took a colossal effort from the world's scientific community to convince them to revert their decision.

Republicans are the biggest enemies science has to deal with in this country.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/mar2004/hubb-m13.shtml

[kelvin50]

03:00 AM on 09/05/2011

Wow.... another thing to blame Bush for. You guys amaze me. Can I blame fact we have no way of getting to the space station on Obama cancelling the shuttle program?

[ProudToBeVeryLiberal]

04:56 AM on 09/05/2011

You're only showing how utterly uninformed you are. The Shuttle program was scheduled to be terminated as soon as the ISS was completed. And that's exactly what happened. That was way before Obama was elected. Incidentally, not only did Bush want to shut down the HST, but he had scheduled to de-orbit the ISS in 2016. Obama extended it to at least 2020.

[PoloniumMan]

09:12 AM on 09/05/2011

Here's the "yes, but" to the claim that Bush admin decided to stop the maintenance flights to Hubble:

"O’Keefe said that he canceled the mission purely out of concern for the safety of shuttle astronauts who would be performing the maintenance. He claimed that a visit to Hubble would violate the conditions for the planned resumption of space shuttle flights. All new launches are to place the shuttle in orbit to dock with the International Space Station, giving the astronauts a safe haven and access to another return vehicle if there is a recurrence of the damage to heat-shield tiles which is believed to be the cause of the Columbia disaster."

[ProudToBeVeryLiberal]

03:12 PM on 09/05/2011

That's not a "yes but", that was the Iamest excuse in history.

[Irvin Spencer]

11:25 AM on 09/02/2011

Wish I could go and explore these places, if I had my choice, that would be a great alternative to heaven exploring the universe for eternity.

[pappyvet]

03:59 AM on 09/02/2011

absolutely stunning,brilliant

[lw1]

10:51 PM on 09/01/2011

What do the creationists think about this?

[jondekonkeroo]

11:18 PM on 09/01/2011

think?

[KC45]

01:08 PM on 09/04/2011

LOL!

[kesac]

06:59 PM on 09/01/2011

How much photoshopping, did it take to make this "stunning"?

[harleydesigns]

07:39 PM on 09/01/2011

none at all. that's the whole point of the beauty of this shot. I'm guessing the galaxies are actually a little more spread out than it would appear, it's just that they happen to line up so as to appear crashing into each other.

[LeftLeanWing]

08:44 PM on 09/01/2011

and they are at Different TIMES as well......

[joemensa]

06:14 PM on 09/01/2011

Looks like one big gigant, galactic cluster f..k if you ask me

[sidlfried1]

05:47 PM on 09/01/2011

Amazingly, beautiful, picture.

[cjohns58]

05:35 PM on 09/01/2011

Is it just me or does the right boob look bigger?

[HowthCastle]

12:16 AM on 09/02/2011

No, you're the biggest boob of all.

[Bob Macfarlane]

05:12 PM on 09/01/2011

How magnificent God’s creation is! I love these pictures.

[Ed Gibson]

04:46 PM on 09/01/2011

Better not show this to Perry of Texas, he'll never believe it, HA, Got to get one in on him wherever I can.

[michaela75662]

08:58 AM on 09/02/2011

Keep jabbing! :-)

[robin360]

04:41 PM on 09/01/2011

Amazing and beautiful! So much better than religion.

[drpmindmender]

04:16 PM on 09/01/2011

WAY COOL!

[NinpoLore]

03:21 PM on 09/01/2011

Gee whiz. These images blow my mind! The Earth itself contains more mysteries than humanity could ever hope to unravel, and the galaxy and universe beyond promises to indulge our sense of wonder for eons to come (or at least as long as our species lasts). But I was a bit saddened to scroll through the comments and see that that there are only 2 pages of comments related to this story. Meanwhile, articles about Dick Cheney's autobiography and the Kardashian sisters have 25+ pages of meaningless bickering. Maybe it's just a fact of life that people will always limit their attention to the mundane and immediate, but I would much rather talk about the possibilities and benefits of space exploration than the latest offensive episode of Toddlers & Tiaras. One day, perhaps our opinions about life on Earth will be informed and supplemented by scientific discovery instead of distracted by it.

It still boggles my mind to think that the Voyager spacecraft, already adrift in space for more than three decades, is only just now breaking the boundaries of our own solar system. Perhaps one day we'll see photos from beyond our solar system that are as clear as our photos of Mars!

[baddunion]

04:20 PM on 09/01/2011

Obama squelched the space program and put Nasa in charge of promoting Muslim heritage, meanwhile we have 2 astronauts stranded on the space station because Russias crappy vehicle crashed this week, thanks Obama!

[cjohns58]

05:33 PM on 09/01/2011

All the while Bush was taking credit for the shuttle flights, he did nothing to bring in the next generation of space craft. Thanks GOP.

[happyjoyjoy333]

06:23 PM on 09/01/2011

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

Paste the above html into your web browser and click go. It'll take to to APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day). You can see images taken by Hubble, Chandra, Soho, the Mars rovers, and many other space vehicles. It's a tremendous site if you want to see and appreciate more of God's great creation. At the bottom of the page click on the "Archives" button and see ALL the images they ever posted. You will definitely be impressed. I was, and have had them as a link on my desktop for the last 12 years. Enjoy!

[catcountryboy]

03:10 PM on 09/01/2011

And people still don't believe in an almighty God! Lord you are awesome!

[baddunion]

04:25 PM on 09/01/2011

You're welcome catboy, by the way the answer to your question is yes, go after her boy!

[catcountryboy]

09:04 AM on 09/02/2011

What question and what are you talking about?

[PlayTOE]

05:19 PM on 09/01/2011

Galaxies 400 million light-years from Earth, proof that YOUR particular deity made them all just 6,000 years ago in a six day effort?

Not even close ...
The wonders of nature are natural* and photos like this are proof that we have a lot to discover and learn.

*(as explained by physicist Stephen Hawkins)

[Brian Childers]

06:31 PM on 09/01/2011

You know,is that all you can come up with? Intelligent design,21st century thinking is here.Do you really think those of us who believe in one True Natural Creator,actually take literally the beginning of the O.T.?