Colliding galaxies are a regular fixture throughout the universe, and we feature them often. Today, we see Arp 22 (otherwise known as NGC 4027): a settled pair of colliding galaxies located 75 million light-years from Earth in the little-known constellation of Corvus.
Astronomers deem it a barred spiral galaxy, with peculiar tendencies (like the spiral arm that sweeps above Arp 22, making it resemble an upside-down comma), which are attributed to the absorption of another galaxy that wandered too close millions of years ago.
The most likely culprit is a small galaxy called NGC 4027a, but it isn’t the only candidate, for Arp 22 belongs to the NGC 4038 Galaxy Group. Between 13 and 27 galaxies call it “home,” but it also has one super famous member—the colliding galaxies collectively known as the Antennae.
The European Southern Observatory provides more information about this image:
[box]This image is based on data collected with the ESO Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera (EFOSC) attached to the 3.58-metre New Technology Telescope (NTT) at the ESO La Silla Observatory in Chile. The data were collected through three broadband filters (B, V and R) and two narrowband filters (Hα and doubly ionised oxygen).[/box]