Interacting Galaxy Duo Arp 142

This interacting galaxy duo, resembling a celestial hummingbird with an egg, is collectively called Arp 142. The pair contains the disturbed, star-forming spiral galaxy NGC 2936, along with its elliptical companion, NGC 2937, at lower left. Once part of a flat, spiral disk, the orbits of NGC 2936's stars have become scrambled due to gravitational tidal interactions with the other galaxy. This warps the galaxy's orderly spiral, and interstellar gas is strewn out into giant tails. Above the pair, an unrelated, lone, bluish galaxy, cataloged as UGC 5130, appears to be an elongated irregular galaxy or an edge-on spiral. This galaxy is much closer to us than the colliding pair, and therefore is not interacting with them.