Spiral galaxies in new Hubble image present a visual illusion of nearby objects that are separated by millions of light years
A new image taken in the first week of 2024 by the Hubble Space Telescope shows a complex tangle of four overlapping spiral galaxies. It shows several galaxies intertwining in a large-scale cosmic dance. Three of these galaxies appear to be one above the other, but they are actually located at different distances.
The largest galaxy in the image, located on the right, is called NGC 1356. It is an elegant, wavy spiral galaxy similar to our Milky Way Galaxy. The noticeable light structure in its center is rich in stars. Next to it you can see two small spiral galaxies — LEDA 467699 and LEDA 95415, and on the left is the galaxy IC 1947.
The difficulty with this image is that even though the three galaxies on the right appear to be close together and the galaxy on the left — Further, this is not true at all. The two LEDA galaxies are actually above NGC 1356 and are separated by millions of light years, their proximity only visible from a certain viewing angle. Even though they appear in the same area of the sky in the image, their distances to Earth differ significantly.
On the other hand, the seemingly lonely galaxy IC 1947 is actually much closer to the large galaxy NGC 1356 to the right. The distance between them is less than 400,000 light years, making them neighbors in this part of the Universe.
Previously «Hubble» created images in which galaxies appeared to be on top of one another, although in fact they overlapped and were at different distances from Earth. It can be difficult to distinguish such images from cases where galaxies are actually interacting with each other. However, a hallmark of interacting galaxies is the distortion of their shape under the influence of gravitational forces as they approach each other.