The Hubble Space Telescope has given us some amazing images of galaxies over the years, and this image of galaxy Arp 184 is no exception.
Also known as NGC 1961, Arp 184 is located about 190 million lightyears away in the constellation Camelopardalis, the Giraffe.
The depth of field in this Hubble image of the galaxy is quite spectacular. It looks like it's jumping out of the screen at us.
Eagle-eyed observers may notice there's something a little strange about this galaxy that marks it out from other spiral galaxies.
From its strange appearance to the reason Hubble captured it in the first place, and the exploding stars that lie within, Arp 184 is amazing for multiple reasons.
Here are five reasons this warped spiral galaxy is deserving of such a beautiful Hubble Space Telescope capture.
It’s not your average spiral galaxy
At first glance, Arp 184 might look like a typical spiral galaxy, but look closer: its structure is anything but ordinary.
It features a single, broad spiral arm stretching toward us, glittering with stars.
The other side? Almost barren by comparison, with only a few faint wisps of gas and stars.
It's an asymmetrical, one-armed spiral galaxy, and its strange appearance has given it pride of place on one of the more unusual deep-sky catalogues...
It's a catalogued cosmic oddball
Arp 184 is listed in the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, a catalogue of galaxies compiled in 1966 by astronomer Halton Arp.
This galaxy’s lopsided shape and skewed, single spiral arm certainly make it look strange.
Its strange appearance could be the result of a past galactic interaction.
In the early Universe, galaxy mergers and collisions were more common, and you'll find that many of the most well-known examples bear the Arp catalogue hallmark.
Hubble caught it between missions
What to do with a huge observatory like the Hubble Space Telescope when it's in-between observing programmes?
Photograph some galaxies, of course!
That's what happened in the case of this image of Arp 184. The image wasn’t part of a long-planned mission, but was captured as part of Hubble’s Snapshot Programmes, which make use of short observing gaps between scheduled tasks.
One of three programmes targeted Arp 184 because of its strange shape, while the other two were focussed on studying the aftermath of supernovae and tidal disruption events (when a star is ripped apart by a black hole).
Arp 184 has hosted four known supernovae in the past three decades, making it ripe for observation.
It’s a supernova goldmine
Arp 184 is a supernova hotspot. Over the past 30 years, astronomers have spotted four separate exploding stars – known as supernovae – within the galaxy.
That makes it a valuable target for astronomers studying the aftermath of these violent stellar deaths.
It hints at a violent past and future
The distorted spiral arm and past supernovae suggest that Arp 184 has had a chaotic history, potentially involving interactions with other galaxies or even tidal disruption events.
It’s an active, evolving system that’s still teaching astronomers a lot about the life and death of galaxies.
