Arp 273, the ‘Rose’

The Hubble Space Telescope captured this image of the interacting galaxy pair Arp 273, popularly called the “Rose.” The larger of the spiral galaxies, known to astronomers as UGC 1810, has a disk that is tidally distorted into a blossom-like shape by the gravitational tidal pull of the companion galaxy UGC 1813 (the Rose’s “stem”) below it. A swath of blue jewels across the top of UGC 1810 is the combined light from clusters of intensely bright and hot, young, blue stars. The galaxy’s outer arm — appearing as a partial ring — suggests that the smaller companion galaxy actually dived deep, but off-center, through UGC 1810. The “stem” galaxy, UGC 1813, is oriented nearly edge-on to Earth and shows distinct signs of intense star formation at its nucleus, perhaps triggered by the encounter with UGC 1810. For more information, visit: hubblesite.org/news_release/news/2011-11