Suggested Searches

1 min read

Three-headed Galactic Blob

Three-headed galactic blob
The big blob-like structure shown here, named Himiko after the legendary ancient queen of Japan, turns out to be three galaxies thought to be in the process of merging into one. In this image, infrared data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope are red; visible data from Hubble are green; and ultraviolet data from Japan's Subaru Telescope are blue.

The big blob-like structure shown here, named Himiko after the legendary ancient queen of Japan, turns out to be three galaxies thought to be in the process of merging into one. In this image, infrared data from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope are red; visible data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope are green; and ultraviolet data from Japan’s Subaru telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii are blue.

Himiko is located nearly 13 billion light-years from Earth, dating back to a time when galaxies were first forming.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/STScI/NAOJ/Subaru