TORONTO -- The Hubble Space Telescope has beamed back an image of a “contorted” spiral galaxy known as NGC 2276, which is 120 million light-years away in the constellation, Cepheus.
The lopsided appearances of the galaxy is due to the interaction between NGC 2276 and nearby galaxies, along with the ignition of superheated gas causing a cluster of star formation along one edge of the spiral.
A spiral galaxy is a celestial body that generally sports a flat rotating disk of stars, gas and dust in the centre and is surrounded by “arms” radiating outward.
NGC 2276 is visible as the bright, blue-tinged glow of newly-formed stars on the left side of Hubble’s image and is half of the reason the galaxy’s contorted appearance, according to a release from the European Space Agency.
The other side of the NGC 2276 is being pulled by gravitational attraction from a neighbouring galaxy, known as NGC 2300, which is tugging the outer edges out of shape.
The spiral galaxy NGC 2276 is featured twice in the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies catalogue, first published in 1966. Once for its lopsided spiral arms and once for the interaction between NGC 2276 and NGC 2300 pulling its edge.
