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Galaxy AM 1054-325

This is a picture of a galaxy with a peculiar S-shape. It has a bright milky-white core at the center. Twin arms of blue stars wrap around the core. One arm looks particularly stretched out due to the gravitational tidal pull of a neighboring galaxy. Bright, young, whitish star clusters are strung along the arm like a string of pearls. They formed as a result of the collision process.

Galaxy AM 1054-325 has been distorted into an S-shape from a normal pancake-like spiral shape by the gravitational pull of a neighboring galaxy, seen in this Hubble Space Telescope image. A consequence of this is that newborn clusters of stars form along a stretched-out tidal tail for thousands of light-years, resembling a string of pearls. They form when knots of gas gravitationally collapse to create about 1 million newborn stars per cluster.

 

About the Object

  • R.A. Position
    R.A. PositionRight ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position.
    10:56:58.79
  • Dec. Position
    Dec. PositionDeclination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position.
    -33:08:57.19
  • Constellation
    ConstellationOne of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears.
    Antlia
  • Distance
    DistanceThe physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs.
    173 million light-years
  • Dimensions
    DimensionsThe physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky.
    Image is 1 arcmin across (about 50,000 light-years)

About the Data

  • Data Description
    Data DescriptionProposal: A description of the observations, their scientific justification, and the links to the data available in the science archive.
    Science Team: The astronomers who planned the observations and analyzed the data. "PI" refers to the Principal Investigator.

    This image was created with Hubble data from proposals: 11134 (K. Knierman) and 14937 (M. Rodruck).

  • Instrument
    InstrumentThe science instrument used to produce the data.
    WFPC2, WFC3
  • Exposure Dates
    Exposure DatesThe date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time.
    29 Feb 2008; 7 Nov 2017
  • Filters
    FiltersThe camera filters that were used in the science observations.
    F336W, F435W, F606W, F814W
  • Object Name
    Object NameA name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object.
    AM 1054-325
  • Object Description
    Object DescriptionThe type of astronomical object.
    Interacting Galaxy
  • Release Date
    February 8, 2024
  • Science Release
    NASA’s Hubble Traces ‘String of Pearls’ Star Clusters in Galaxy Collisions
    Read the release
  • Credit
    NASA, ESA, STScI, Jayanne English (University of Manitoba)

Downloads

  • Full Res (For Display), 3260 × 3210
    png (9.07 MB)
  • Full Res (For Print), 3260 × 3210
    tif (11.13 MB)
  • 2000 × 1969
    jpg (787.9 KB)
This is a picture of a galaxy with a peculiar S-shape. It has a bright milky-white core at the center. Twin arms of blue stars wrap around the core. One arm looks particularly stretched out due to the gravitational tidal pull of a neighboring galaxy. Bright, young, whitish star clusters are strung along the arm like a string of pearls. They formed as a result of the collision process.
Color Info
Color InfoA brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented.

These images are a composite of separate exposures acquired by the Hubble Space Telescope using the WFPC2 and WFC3 instruments. Several filters were used to sample broad wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors are: Magenta: F336W, Cyan: F435W, Green: F606W, Red: F814W

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Details

Last Updated
Mar 28, 2025
Contact
Media

Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov

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