Astronomers have found the astronomical equivalent of prehistoric life in our intergalactic backyard: a group of small, ancient galaxies that has waited 10 billion years to come together. These "late bloomers" are on their way to building a large elliptical galaxy. Such encounters b...
Seen here are the galaxies of HCG (Hickson Compact Group) 87, about four hundred million light-years distant in the constellation Capricornus.
The large edge-on spiral near the centre, the fuzzy elliptical galaxy immediately to its right, and the spiral near the top of the imag...
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has imaged part of the Hickson Compact Group 7, or HCG 7 for short. This grouping is composed of one lenticular (lens-shaped) and three spiral galaxies in close proximity. In this image, one of the spirals dominates the foreground, with many more distant galaxie...