Seyfert's Sextet
Explanation:
Known as
Seyfert's Sextet,
this intriguing group of galaxies lies in the head portion of
the split constellation
Serpens.
The sextet actually contains only four interacting galaxies, though.
Near the center of
this
Hubble Space Telescope picture, the small
face-on spiral galaxy
lies in the distant background and appears only by chance aligned with
the main group.
Also, the prominent condensation
on the far right is likely not a separate galaxy at all,
but a
tidal tail
of stars flung out by the galaxies' gravitational
interactions.
About 190 million
light-years away, the interacting galaxies are tightly
packed into a region around 100,000 light-years across,
comparable to the size of our own
Milky
Way galaxy, making this
one of the densest known
galaxy groups.
Bound by gravity, the
close-knit group
may coalesce into a single large galaxy over the next few billion
years.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
