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Spiral galaxy above and slightly left of center, blue-white arms made of of stars, and streaks of brown gas. To its lower right, just below central, an orange-white glowing sphere. Bright foreground star in the upper-right.

Merging Galaxies AM 0500-620

AM 0500-620 consists of a highly symmetric spiral galaxy seen nearly face-on and partially backlit by a background galaxy. The foreground galaxy has a number of dust lanes between its arms. The background galaxy was earlier classified as an elliptical, but the Hubble Space Telescope revealed a galaxy with dusty spiral arms and bright knots of stars.

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration, and W. Keel (University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa)
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