Hubble Space Telescope image shows galaxies merge 671M light-years away

The telescope captured the galaxy merger Arp-Madore 417-391

Scientists at NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) released an image on Friday showcasing a pair of merging galaxies. 

The galaxy merger, known as Arp-Madore 417-391, is located 671 million light-years away in the constellation Eridanus. 

Captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, it is the result of two galaxies that were distorted by gravity and twisted together into a ring.

Their cores were left nestled side by side.

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The galaxy merger Arp-Madore 417-391 steals the spotlight in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The Arp-Madore catalogue is a collection of particularly peculiar galaxies spread throughout the southern sky and includes a collection of subtly interacting galaxies as well as more spectacular colliding galaxies.  (ESA/Hubble & NASA, Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA, J. Dalcanton)

The telescope used its Advanced Camera for Surveys to snap this scene and the ESA said that the instrument is optimized to hunt for galaxies and galaxy clusters in the ancient universe. 

The Arp-Madore catalog is a collection of strange galaxies spread across the southern sky. 

Arp-Madore 417-391 close up (Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA, J. Dalcanton)

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The photo comes from a selection of Hubble observations that are designed to create a list of intriguing targets for follow-up observations with the international James Webb Space Telescope and other ground-based telescopes.

An astronaut aboard the space shuttle Atlantis captured this image of the Hubble Space Telescope on May 19, 2009. (NASA)

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Astronomers chose a list of previously unobserved galaxies for Hubble to inspect.

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