Space photo of the week: Warped 'hummingbird galaxy' guards a cosmic egg

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Hubble's image of two colliding galaxies, known as Arp 142, show how a small galaxy's gravity has shredded a once-large spiral into a birdlike figure.

The birdlike galaxy NGC 2936 is being ripped apart by the smaller galaxy NGC 2937.
The birdlike galaxy NGC 2936 is being ripped apart by the smaller galaxy NGC 2937. (Image credit: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA))

What it is: Arp 142, a pair of interacting galaxies

When it was taken: June 20, 2013

Is it a hummingbird, a penguin, or a sneaky porpoise creeping up onto the beach? Arp 142 is a fabulous example of pareidolia, the human tendency to see familiar objects or patterns in unrelated objects. However, its two galaxies are very much related in that they're gravitationally interacting with each other.

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If you study the twisted remains of the larger spiral galaxy, you can see the leftovers of its bright core as the "eye'" of the bird — but its once-spiraling arms of stars are now warped streaks of blue and red in the bird's body.

(Image credit: NASA/ Hubble)

Although the image was created in 2013, it's resurfaced recently as scientists use the Hubble Space Telescope to finish cataloging so-called peculiar galaxies. In September, Hubble added Arp 107 as the space telescope used its Advanced Camera for Surveys to observe members of the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, all of which are interacting and merging. That catalog was initially published in 1966 by American astronomer Halton Arp (this peculiar galaxy’s namesake).

The image of Arp 142 — a combination of visible and infrared light — was taken by Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3, which was installed in 2009 by astronauts on Space Shuttle Atlantis, according to NASA. It was the final servicing mission, and the space telescope hasn't been visited since.

Jamie Carter
Jamie Carter
Live Science contributor

Jamie Carter is a Cardiff, U.K.-based freelance science journalist and a regular contributor to Live Science. He is the author of A Stargazing Program For Beginners and co-author of The Eclipse Effect, and leads international stargazing and eclipse-chasing tours. His work appears regularly in Space.com, Forbes, New Scientist, BBC Sky at Night, Sky & Telescope, and other major science and astronomy publications. He is also the editor of WhenIsTheNextEclipse.com.