A small and large galaxy about to merge shows a new image taken by a special US Department of Energy camera.
Mounted on a telescope in Chile, this image released by the US National Science Foundation shows the spiral galaxy NGC 1532, 55 million light-years away.
Also known as Haley’s Coronet, the galaxy is pictured in a gravitational “tug of war” with the dwarf galaxy NGC 1531. The image shows that the gravity of the small companions acts on the large neighbor and lifts one of the spiral arms out of the galactic plane. It is the preliminary stage of the future merger when the spiral galaxy incorporates its small companion.
