The Hubble telescope continues on its mission: captures two spiral galaxies in ‘collision’

Although the James Webb telescope has taken all eyes, Hubble continues to study the universe and give us unique images.

The Hubble Space Telescope continues to capture stunning images, the latest of which is what appears to be a collision of two spiral galaxies.

The image was revealed by NASA and ESA and portrays the galaxies SDSS J115331 and LEDA 2073461.

Hubble science

The captured galaxies are located more than a billion light years from Earth and, although they appear to be, they are not in a collision.

From Hubble’s perspective, both galaxies appear superimposed, giving the appearance of a collision between them.

The lights next to the galaxies are other more distant stars and whose lights are slightly portrayed in the image.

Thanks to the volunteers

This image is one of many Hubble observations that delve into the highlights of the Galaxy Zoo project.

Originally established in 2007, the Galaxy Zoo project and its successors are massive citizen science projects that collect galaxy classifications from a pool of hundreds of thousands of volunteers. These volunteers classify galaxies imaged by robotic telescopes and are often the first to see an astronomical object.

At the moment, despite the fact that the Hubble data is being compared with the James Webb, both support each other  allowing more complete images of some stars.  Although Webb is, in quotes, his “replacement”, Hubble will continue to cooperate with the scientific community for many years to come.