Photo's description:

NGC 6670 is a gorgeous pair of overlapping edge-on galaxies resembling a leaping dolphin. Scientists believe that NGC 6670 has already experienced at least one close encounter and is now in the early stages of a second. The nuclei of the two galaxies are approximately 50,000 light-years apart. NGC 6670 glows in the infrared with more than a hundred billion times the luminosity of our Sun and is thought to be entering a starburst phase. The pair is located some 400 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. About the object Object name NGC 6670 , NGC 6670A/B, VII Zw 812 Object description Interacting Galaxies Position (J2000) 18 33 37.38 +59 53 21.2 Constellation Pavo Distance 400 million light-years (100 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) October 30, 2001 Exposure time 38 minutes Filters F435W (B) and F814W (I) Date 24 April 2008 Source http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2008/16/image/ad/ (direct link) Author NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration, and A. Evans (University of Virginia, Charlottesville/NRAO/Stony Brook University) Permission (Reusing this file) Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse