Image: Hubble Interacting Galaxy UGC 4881 (2008-04-24)

Description: UGC 4881, known as the "The Grasshopper," is a stunning system consisting of two colliding galaxies. It has a bright curly tail containing a remarkable number of star clusters. The galaxies are thought to be halfway through a merger the cores of the parent galaxies are still clearly separated, but their disks are overlapping. A supernova exploded in this system in 1999 and astronomers believe that a vigorous burst of star formation may have just started. This notable object is located in the constellation of Lynx, some 500 million light-years away from Earth. UGC 4881 is the 55th galaxy in Arp's Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies. 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 UGC 4881, VV 155, Arp 055, "The Grasshopper" Object description Interacting Galaxies Position (J2000) 09 15 55.38 +44 19 55.3 Constellation Lynx Distance 500 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 4, 2001 Exposure time 35 minutes Filters F435W (B) and F814W (I)
Title: Hubble Interacting Galaxy UGC 4881 (2008-04-24)
Credit: http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2008/16/image/cb/ (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: Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse 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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