The Hubble Space Telescope has captured a stunning image of Arp 298, a pair of galaxies that are interacting with each other in a spectacular way.

Images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope reveal Arp 298, a magnificent pair of galaxies that are interacting.

Arp 298 – which includes the galaxies NGC 7469 and IC 5283 — is located in the constellation Pegasus, around 200 million light-years from Earth.

The barred spiral galaxy NGC 7469 is the larger of the two galaxies shown here, while IC 5283 is its smaller companion.

An active supermassive black hole and a brilliant ring of star clusters can also be found in NGC 7469.

The “Arp” in this galaxy pair’s name denotes that they are listed in astronomer Halton Arp’s Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies.

The Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies is a collection of strange and magnificent galaxies with unusual features, including galaxies with segmented spiral arms and concentric rings.

In 2008, a shot of the merging galaxies in Arp 298 was published, illustrating how the two galaxies interact with one another.

This image of Arp 298 includes data from three different Hubble observing proposals, as well as many background galaxies. Arp 298 is shown in exquisite detail using seven different filters from two of Hubble’s sensors – the Wide Field Camera 3 and the Advanced Camera for Surveys — by integrating views from three proposals.

This galaxy will be one of the first galaxies studied with the James Webb Space Telescope in Summer 2022 as part of the Director’s Discretionary Early Release Science Programs.

Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Evans, R. Chandar

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