大象传媒

Nasa's Hubble telescope has captured fighting 'galactic siblings'

galaxies.Image source, ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Dalcanton
Image caption,

The telescope captured the galaxies taking part in a "gravitational tug-of-war" game.

Nasa's Hubble Telescope is known for capturing some pretty incredible images and it's latest picture has given humans another special glimpse into space.

The telescope captured a trio of galaxies taking part in a "gravitational tug-of-war".

"Galactic siblings fight, too," Nasa posted on it's official Instagram page.

This particular system is known as Arp 195 and it's featured in the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, which is a list which showcases some of the weirder and more wonderful galaxies in the universe.

Media caption,

Space scientist Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock tells us why the Hubble Space Telescope is so important

Did you know?

The Hubble Telescope has made more than 1.5 million observations since its mission began in 1990!

How does Hubble capture these shots?

The time the Hubble telescope has to observe what's going on in space is extremely valuable, so astronomers are sure not to waste a second.

The schedule for Hubble observations is calculated using a special computer algorithm, and this allows the spacecraft to occasionally gather bonus snapshots of data between the telescope's longer observations. The image of the clashing triplet of galaxies in Arp 195 is one of these extra shots.

Extra observations like this one provide astronomers with more spectacular images, but that's not their only purpose. They also help to identify promising targets to follow up with using other spacecrafts such as the new James Webb Space Telescope which is set to launch at the end of this year.