NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captured a stunning image of Arp 298, a pair of interacting galaxies in the constellation of Pegasus. Located about 206 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Pegasus, the system comprises two galaxies: the barred spiral galaxy NGC 7469 and its smaller spiral companion, IC 5283.
The barred spiral galaxy NGC 7469 is large among two galaxies. It also hosts a supermassive black hole and a bright ring of star clusters.
The image also shows several background galaxies. It contains data from three separate Hubble observing proposals: Scientists combined data from three proposals to capture the image with glorious detail. The image was captured in seven different filters from two of Hubble‘s instruments – the Wide Field Camera 3 and the Advanced Camera for Surveys.
Arp hints that the galaxies are listed in the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, a gallery of weird and beautiful galaxies containing peculiar structures. It also features galaxies that exhibit everything from segmented spiral arms to concentric rings.
NASA mentioned in their blog, “This system will be one of the first galaxies observed with the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope as part of the Director’s Discretionary Early Release Science Programs in Summer 2022.”