Intergalactic Pipeline
Depicts: NGC 1409, IRAS 03386-0127, NGC 1410
Copyright: William C. Keel (University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa) and NASA
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This visible-light picture, taken by the Hubble telescope, reveals an intergalactic "pipeline" of material flowing between two battered galaxies that bumped into each other about 100 million years ago. The pipeline [the dark string of matter] begins in NGC 1410 [the galaxy at left], crosses over 20,000 light-years of intergalactic space, and wraps around NGC 1409 [the companion galaxy at right] like a ribbon around a package. The galaxies reside about 300 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Taurus.
Last Update: 1 September 2019