The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captured this magnificent image of Arp 298, a gorgeous pair of interacting galaxies. Arp 298, which includes the galaxies NGC 7469 and IC 5283, is located around 200 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Pegasus. The barred spiral galaxy NGC 7469 is the bigger of the two galaxies shown here, while IC 5283 is its smaller partner. In addition, NGC 7469 is home to an active supermassive black hole and a brilliant ring of star clusters.
The "Arp" in the name of this galaxy pair denotes that it is mentioned in the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies produced by astronomer Halton Arp. The Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies is a collection of strange and magnificent galaxies with unusual features, including galaxies with segmented spiral arms and concentric rings. This interacting galaxy pair is a familiar sight for Hubble, who produced an image of merging galaxies in Arp 298 in 2008.
This picture of Arp 298, which includes numerous background galaxies, was created from data from three different Hubble observing missions. Arp 298 is seen in beautiful detail in seven distinct filters from two of Hubble's sensors, the Wide Field Camera 3 and the Advanced Camera for Surveys, by integrating views from three proposals.
As part of the Director's Discretionary Early Release Science Programs, this system will be one of the first galaxies viewed by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope in Summer 2022.
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