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Picture of the day -
January 9, 2006
The Tadpole Galaxy
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Photo courtesy of
NASA.
Today's picture features spiral galaxy Arp 188...commonly known as the
Tadpole Galaxy. And just a casual glance makes it easy to see why we call it
that! Its long "tail" and swirling clouds of stars, gas and dust make Arp 188 one of
the most interesting galaxies in the universe.
The Tadpole Galaxy is located some 420 million
light years from
earth in the
constellation Draco. It most likely "grew" its 280 thousand light year long tail
when another galaxy passed by just close enough for its gravitational force to
"pull" lots of stars, dust and gas from Arp 188 into a long line extending away
from the galaxy.
As you can see, in addition to the Tadpole Galaxy there are numerous other
galaxies and stars scattered throughout space in the background, and with
billions of galaxies in the universe it is no wonder that they can be seen
virtually everywhere you look in the night sky!
This stunning image of Arp 188 is just one of the many thousands of spectacular
pictures taken by the amazing
Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera For
Surveys.
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