Image: Hubble Interacting Galaxy ESO 69-6 (2008-04-24)

Description: The galaxies of this beautiful interacting pair bear some resemblance to musical notes on a stave. Long tidal tails sweep out from the two galaxies: gas and stars were stripped out and torn away from the outer regions of the galaxies. The presence of these tails is the unique signature of an interaction. ESO 69-6 is located in the constellation of Triangulum Australe, the Southern Triangle, about 650 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 ESO 69-6, ESO 069-IG006, AM 1633-682 Object description Interacting Galaxies Position (J2000) 16 38 12.69 -68 26 25.4 Constellation Triangulum Australe Distance 600 million light-years (200 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) April 8, 2002 Exposure time 39 minutes Filters F435W (B) and F814W (I)
Title: Hubble Interacting Galaxy ESO 69-6 (2008-04-24)
Credit: http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2008/16/image/as/ (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: This file is in the public domain because it was created by NASA and ESA. NASA Hubble material (and ESA Hubble material prior to 2009) is copyright-free and may be freely used as in the public domain without fee, on the condition that only NASA, STScI, and/or ESA is credited as the source of the material. This license does not apply if ESA material created after 2008 or source material from other organizations is in use. The material was created for NASA by Space Telescope Science Institute under Contract NAS5-26555, or for ESA by the Hubble European Space Agency Information Centre. Copyright statement at hubblesite.org or 2008 copyright statement at spacetelescope.org. For material created by the European Space Agency on the spacetelescope.org site since 2009, use the Template:ESA-Hubble tag.
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