Hubble Spies Long-Armed Galaxy

The peculiar spiral galaxy ESO 415-19, which lies around 450 million light-years away, stretches lazily across this 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. ESO 415-19’s peculiarity made it a great target for Hubble. This observation comes from an ongoing campaign to explore the Arp Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, a menagerie of some of the weirdest and most wonderful galaxies that the universe has to offer.