Hubble has photographed two spiral galaxies connected by a stellar bridge

The Hubble Space Telescope continues to send impressive photographs of various objects in our universe. Another image shows two large, connected spiral galaxies from the Arp 248 galactic triplet, also known as the Wilde triplet, which is about 200 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo.

The two large galaxies visible in this image are in the background of a third, unconnected spiral galaxy. This gives the illusion that the two large galaxies are connected by a luminous bridge. This elongated plume of stars and interstellar dust is known as a tidal tail. It was formed by the interaction of the gravitational pull of the two galaxies seen in the foreground.

Also visible to the left of the lower galaxy is another orange-coloured spiral galaxy, but it is located much further away from the main characters in this photo.

This amazing photo was taken as part of a project that is compiling two catalogues of visually unusual and bizarre stellar objects, A Catalogue Of Southern Peculiar Galaxies And Associations and Atlas Of Peculiar Galaxies, which are being worked on by astronomers Halton Arp and Barry Madore.