The Hubble is 21 years old

WIRED: To commemorate the upcoming 21st anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope's first day in space, NASA astronomers released this beautiful image of two interacting galaxies in the shape of a rose.

Together, the pair of dancing galaxies are called Arp 273. They lie in the constellation Andromeda, about 300 million light-years from Earth. Though connected by a thin bridge of stars, they're tens of thousands of light-years from each other.

The larger galaxy, called UGC 1810, is about five times as massive as its smaller companion, UGC 1813. Astronomers think the smaller galaxy plunged straight through the larger: UGC 1810's inner set of spiral arms is highly warped, a telltale sign of distortion by UGC 1813's gravitational pull. Meanwhile, UGC 1813 shows an intense burst of star formation in its nucleus, possibly triggered by swan-diving through its neighbor.

WIRED