For this week, I chose the picture called Arp 188 and the Tadpole's Tidal Tail, updated on September 26, 2010. This is a picture of the Tadpole Galaxy, and it appears to have a rather long tail on the end of it. The picture was taken with the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys.
There are quite a few outlying galaxies that serve as the background for this galaxy, called the spiral galaxy Arp 188. The tail is about 280 thousand light-years long, and it has huge bright blue star clusters. There is a story to the long tail. It is said that a more tightly packed galaxy crossed in front of it from left to right, and got thrown behind the Tadpole Galaxy because of the gravitational attraction between them. During the encounter between the two galaxies, tidal forces stretched out the spiral galaxy's stars, gas, and dust, leaving the remnants of a tail-shaped figure. The galaxy said to have been swung behind this galaxy is apparent about 300 thousand light years, which can be seen through the spirals of the galaxies towards the lower left of the galaxy. What is most likely to happen is that the galaxy will lose its long tail as time goes on. And, the tail's star clusters will form smaller satellites within the larger spiraling galaxy.
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