What happens when a galaxy falls in with the wrong crowd? The
irregular galaxy NGC 1427A is a spectacular example of the resulting
stellar rumble. Under the gravitational grasp of a large gang of
galaxies, called the Fornax cluster, the small bluish galaxy is
plunging headlong into the group at 600 km/sec or nearly 400 mi/sec.
The galaxy was imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera
for Surveys in January 2003.
Credit: NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Acknowledgment: M. Gregg (Univ. Calif.-Davis and Inst. for Geophysics
and Planetary Physics, Lawrence Livermore Natl. Lab.)
For more on this image, see http://hubblesite.org/news/2005/09
http://heritage.stsci.edu/2005/09
The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) is operated by the
Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. (AURA), for
NASA, under contract with the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt,
MD. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation
between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA).
