October 20, 2020

Arp 283 (NGC 2799 and NGC 2798) (Immagine ESA/Hubble & NASA, SDSS, J. Dalcanton Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt (Geckzilla))

A photo taken by the Hubble Space Telescope shows Arp 283, which is not a single object but a pair of galaxies classified as NGC 2798 (on the right) and NGC 2799 (on the left). Astronomer Halton Arp put this pair in his catalog of peculiar galaxies because they are two interacting galaxies, which means they’re affected by each other’s force of gravity. Arp 283 was compared to a waterspout with stars from NGC 2799 appearing to fall towards NGC 2798 like drops of water. In the distant future, the two galaxies could merge.