Arp 271 The Tender Dance

Located about 130 million light-years away in Constellation Virgo, the Arp 271 pair is about 130,000 light-years across. It was originally discovered in 1785 by William Herschel.

Arp 271 comprises galaxies NGC 5426 and NGC 5427, two similar spiral galaxies that glide past each other in a cosmic dance that is choreographed by gravity. It is uncertain whether the galaxies will eventually collide.

They will continue to interact for tens of millions of years, creating new stars due to the mutual gravitational attraction between the galaxies, seen here are obvious signs of interaction by the bridge of stars already connecting the two.

Our own Milky Way Galaxy will undergo a similar collision in the far future with the Andromeda galaxy, which is now located about 2.6 million light years away from the Milky Way.

Taken from El Sauce Chile CDK 24” and Moravian C3 camera.

Lum 32 x 15mins, Red22 x 15mins, Green 21 x 15mins, Blue 21 x 15mins, Ha1 5 x 20mins

Image Processing and Calibration: Mark Hanson

Data Capture: Martin Pugh

Enjoy, Mark