Credit: ESO/INAF/M. Mirabile et al.

The Very Large Survey Telescope (VST) has captured here a whole zoo of galaxies, filling the empty void of space. At the centre of this varied and colourful collection, is elliptical galaxy NGC 3640, situated just above its smaller galactic neighbour NGC 3641. Astronomers are especially interested in the way these two interact with each other, studying their joint history through their populations of ancient clusters of stars. Links Close-up of NGC 3640 Fly over this group of galaxies (video) Paper by Mirabile et al. in Astronomy & Astrophysics Paper by Ragusa et al. in Astronomy & Astrophysics Press release by the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics

Provider: European Southern Observatory

Image Source: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2507b/

Curator: European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München, None, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License