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Colliding Galaxy Pair Arp 142 Takes Flight
This video begins with a view of the southern constellation Sextans and zooms into the peculiar galaxy Arp 142. A close-up look with the Hubble Space Telescope reveals that the object is really two interacting galaxies. A gravitationally distorted spiral galaxy resembles the profile of a hummingbird, while the companion elliptical galaxy resembles an egg. The blue galaxy once had a pinwheel shape, like that of our Milky Way. But the gravitational pull of the nearby companion galaxy has stretched it like a piece of taffy. A synthesized 3-D view shows the relative positions of the galaxies.
- Release DateJune 20, 2013
- Science ReleaseColliding Galaxy Pair Takes Flight
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Colliding Galaxy Pair Arp 142
This striking NASA Hubble Space Telescope image, which shows what looks like the profile of a celestial bird, belies the fact that close encounters between galaxies are a messy business. This interacting galaxy duo is collectively called Arp 142. The pair contains the disturbed,...
Colliding Galaxy Pair Arp 142 Takes Flight (Narrated)
The southern constellation Hydra is home to an unusual deep-sky object. Located 326 million light-years away, it was first cataloged in the 1960s as a peculiar galaxy. In this Hubble Space Telescope view, the celestial wonder looks more like a hummingbird next to an egg. In...
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Last Updated
Aug 17, 2025
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Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
