Hubble sees warped galaxy in landmark pic

A major collision brought about this galactic ripple

By Richard Stenger
CNN

(CNN) -- The Hubble Space Telescope has captured in remarkable detail a strange galaxy with an edgy twist.

The picture, released by NASA astronomers Thursday, showcases a rare warped disk around the stellar neighborhood, seen from an edge-on perspective.

Conventional spiral galaxies like our own Milky Way have spiral arms and dust disks that appear level when viewed edge-on. But this particular galaxy, located in the southern constellation Hydra, about 150 million light-years away, possesses a contorted disk of dust.

The exterior of the galaxy, known as ESO 510-G13, is easily distinguished because the bright bulge of central stars silhouettes the outer structure, Hubble scientists said. Besides having a fascinating look, the galaxy has an absorbing past.

The warped shape is evidence that the galaxy recently crashed into another collection of stars. Such collisions spark the formation of new generations of stars, a subject of particular interest to astronomers.

"We have learned over the past couple decades that galaxy collisions and mergers played an important role in building the universe we see around us today. That makes studying relatively nearby galaxies where there is evidence of a merger or interaction interesting. We'd like to understand the process in detail," said Keith Noll, a member of the Hubble Heritage Team.

The group of NASA researchers crafted the color-composite image from observations taken in April by a wide-field camera aboard the Hubble satellite. During the galactic photo shoot, the camera snapped its 100,000th image since shuttle astronauts installed it in the telescope in 1993.

"It was just pure coincidence," Noll said.