News Release Archive:

News Release 206 of 885

April 24, 2008 09:00 AM (EDT)

News Release Number: STScI-2008-16

Cosmic Collisions Galore!

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Image: Hubble Interacting Galaxy NGC 5331

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ABOUT THIS IMAGE:

NGC 5331 is a pair of interacting galaxies beginning to hold their arms . There is a blue trail which appears in the image flowing to the right of the system. NGC 5331 is very bright in the infrared, with about a hundred billion times the luminosity of the Sun. It is located in the constellation Virgo, the Maiden, about 450 million light-years away from Earth.

This image is part of a large collection of 59 images of merging galaxies taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and released on the occasion of its 18th anniversary on 24th April 2008.

Object Names: NGC 5331, VV 253, KPG 401

Image Type: Astronomical

Credit: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration, and A. Evans (University of Virginia, Charlottesville/NRAO/Stony Brook University)

Technical facts about this image:

About the Object

Object Name:	NGC 5331, VV 253, KPG 401
Object Description:	Interacting Galaxies
Position (J2000):	13 52 16.39 +02 06 15.0
Constellation:	Virgo
Distance:	450 million light-years (150 million parsecs)

About the Data

Data Description:	The Hubble image was created using HST data from proposal 10592: A. Evans (University of Virginia, Charlottesville/NRAO/Stony Brook University)
Instrument:	ACS/WFC
Exposure Date(s):	December 22, 2001
Exposure Time:	33 minutes
Filters:	F435W (B) and F814W (I)

About the Image

Image Credit:	NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration, and A. Evans (University of Virginia, Charlottesville/NRAO/Stony Brook University)
Release Date:	April 24, 2008

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