When galaxies come close to each other, they are likely to collide, push and pull one another and might even merge. Now, the Hubble Space Telescope has snapped an event where three galaxies are interacting with each other or as the space agency refers to as “squabbling galactic siblings.”
Hubble is a joint venture between NASA and the European Space Agency. ESA said the new image captures a “dramatic triplet of galaxies” engaged in a “three-way gravitational tug-of-war.” The system is called Arp 195, named after astronomer Halton Arp.
Unique in its ways
The trio captured in the image is so unique it is a part of Arp’s 1966 Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, a list of galaxies that do not resemble other galaxies. “Appreciation of these peculiarities is important in order to build a realistic picture of what galaxies are really like,” reads the Atlas preface.
The Arp 195 was a side investigation that the space telescope did, taking out time from its schedule. “Extra observations such as these do more than provide spectacular images, they also help to identify promising targets to follow up with using telescopes such as the upcoming NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope,” ESA said.
Hubble is back in action
Hubble was out of service for several days after a technical glitch stopped its computers. It went into safe mode in June after the ground team failed to switch to the backup computer. Initial attempts to fix the orbital observatory failed. But later it was fixed and all observations were back again.
NASA confirmed the problem lied within the Hubble’s Power Control Unit (PCU), placed within the payload computer. It sends a steady stream of power to all parts of the hardware.
The telescope will soon be accompanied by the James Webb space telescope. The space observatory has already reached three milestones in its final testing phase. The James Webb space telescope was earlier scheduled to launch in 2020; however, the launch date had to be moved to 2021 due to the pandemic. The telescope will now be launched in November this year.
