AM 0500-620
AM0500-620 consists of a highly symmetric spiral galaxy seen nearly face-on and partially backlit by a background galaxy. The foreground spiral galaxy has a number of dust lanes between its arms. The background galaxy was earlier classified as an elliptical galaxy, but Hubble has now revealed it to be a galaxy with dusty spiral arms and bright knots of stars. AM0500-620 is 350 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Dorado, the Swordfish.
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 24 April 2008.
Last Update: 1 September 2019