The 8-meter Gemini South telescope at Cerro Pachon, Chile, captured this dramatic image of the interacting galaxies NGC 1532 (large foreground galaxy) and NGC 1531 (smaller object at top left). The pair is about 55 million light-years away in the southern constellation Eridanus. These galaxies lie close enough together so that each feels the influence of the other’s gravity. The gravitational tug-of-war has triggered star formation in the foreground spiral as evidenced by the young, bright blue star clusters along the upper edge of the front spiral arm.
T. Rector (UA Anchorage)/Gemini Observatory/AURA/NSF
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