The object ZW II 96 (also ''II Zw 96'') is a pair of galaxies that are

merging Merge, merging, or merger may refer to: Concepts * Merge (traffic), the reduction of the number of lanes on a road * Merge (linguistics), a basic syntactic operation in generative syntax in the Minimalist Program * Merger (politics), the comb ...

. It is in the

constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The origins of the e ...

Delphinus Delphinus (Pronounced or ) is a small constellation in the Northern Celestial Hemisphere, close to the celestial equator. Its name is the Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-Europea ...

, about 500 million light-years from

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

. The shape of the merging galaxies is unusual; a number of powerful young

starburst region A starburst is an astrophysical process that involves star formation occurring at a rate that is large compared to the rate that is typically observed. This starburst activity will consume the available interstellar gas supply over a timespan that ...

s hang as long, threadlike structures between the main galaxy cores. The system is relatively luminous, but has not yet reached the late stage of coalescence that is typical for most ultraluminous systems. The photograph is from a collection of 59 images of merging galaxies taken by the NASA/ESA

Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope (often referred to as HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most versa ...

released on 24 April 2008, on the 18th anniversary of its 1990 launch.

References

External links

* Interacting galaxies 2-96 Delphinus Luminous infrared galaxies 65779 {{galaxy-stub