Hubble Spies Long-Armed Galaxy

The peculiar spiral galaxy ESO 415-19, which lies around 450 million light-years away, stretches lazily across this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image. While the center of this object resembles a regular spiral galaxy, long streams of stars stretch out from the galactic core like bizarrely elongated spiral arms. These are tidal streams are the result of some chance interaction in the galaxy’s past and give ESO 415-19 a distinctly peculiar appearance.