Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Arp 188 and the Tadpole's Tail

NASA ^ | August 25, 2014 | (see photo credit)

[SunkenCiv]

Explanation: Why does this galaxy have such a long tail? In this stunning vista, based on image data from the Hubble Legacy Archive, distant galaxies form a dramatic backdrop for disrupted spiral galaxy Arp 188, the Tadpole Galaxy. The cosmic tadpole is a mere 420 million light-years distant toward the northern constellation Draco. Its eye-catching tail is about 280 thousand light-years long and features massive, bright blue star clusters. One story goes that a more compact intruder galaxy crossed in front of Arp 188 - from right to left in this view - and was slung around behind the Tadpole by their gravitational attraction. During the close encounter, tidal forces drew out the spiral galaxy's stars, gas, and dust forming the spectacular tail. The intruder galaxy itself, estimated to lie about 300 thousand light-years behind the Tadpole, can be seen through foreground spiral arms at the upper right. Following its terrestrial namesake, the Tadpole Galaxy will likely lose its tail as it grows older, the tail's star clusters forming smaller satellites of the large spiral galaxy.

[SunkenCiv]

[Credit: Hubble Legacy Archive, ESA, NASA; Processing & Copyright: Joachim Dietrich]

[SunkenCiv]

The Big One

join or quit list APoD 'blog post new APoD topic Astronomy Picture of the Day topic & keyword Astronomy Chat, Bloggers & keyword Science Chat, Bloggers & keyword NASA's APoD archive Calendar 1995-present APoD on your desktop

[Robert A Cook PE]

First up!

Pretty!

[Delta 21]

Literally hundreds of galaxies visible in this picture!

[cloudmountain]

The "tadpole tail" might already be gone in real time.
Don't we see photos in VERY later time?

[Pox]

Correct. What we see in this picture is supposedly the light that was emitted from that region of the Universe 420 million years ago.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

That’s a lot of galaxies in one image.

[Swordmaker]

That’s a lot of galaxies in one image.

Naw, that's only a few. Try this one.

Note there appear to be a several Herbig Haro structures in this image. . .

[cloudmountain]

Correct. What we see in this picture is supposedly the light that was emitted from that region of the Universe 420 million years ago.

Is that all?
Well, that's a "yesterday" in cosmic time.

[mikrofon]

The “tail” is actually a thread that’s been pulled from the object, as it goes spinning off into space ... In a few Billion years, it will be all unraveled into one long, cosmic string ;)

[RansomOttawa]

This is the weirdest galaxy I’ve seen so far.