Hubble Space Telescope has captured a brilliant and fascination snapshot of the galaxy pair Arp 147 as if proving to all that it is well and back in action full swing. Operation on the telescope was resumed only on 25th October 2008 four weeks after it developed problems related to the science data formatter. The spacecraft was set in the Safe mode until it was set right.
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope with the help of its prime Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 captured brilliantly the intriguing target of two galaxies which interact gravitationally, the Arp 147 just two days after the orbiting observatory was brought online. Perfect handling of the camera and a ‘perfect 10’ performance was exactly as it was before the spacecraft went offline.
Photographs reveal a smooth starlight ring apart from which the galaxy to the left remains unchanged. There is a star formation on the galaxy which is located right most. This formation appears blue and clumpy. When the galaxies passed through each other, it resulted in the formation of the blue ring.
Just as ripples are created in a pond when a pebble is thrown into it, the impact of the two galaxies resulted in the high density ring propagating outward. As the material moving inward due to gravitational pull of the galaxies collided with the high density ring moving outwards, dense gas and shocks generated and resulted in the formation of stars.
Halton Arp’s compilation ‘Arp Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies’ published in the year 1966 features the Arp 147. Arp 147 is a part of the ‘Cetus’ constellation located at a distance of 400 million light years from Earth.
