Hubble's Next Discovery - You Decide

Arp 274 Final
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This image of Arp 274 was taken by the ground-based Palomar Observatory. It is part of the Digitized Sky Survey.

Voting closed March 1st.

Winner! Arp 274

After more than 140,000 votes were cast by participants around the world, the galaxy group Arp 274 emerged the winner of the "Hubble's Next Discovery -- You Decide" contest. And it turned out to be an excellent choice, the striking detail revealed giving us the first close-up view of this galactic trio.

Hubble's new image of Arp 274 indicates that what was previously thought to be a set of interacting galaxies may in fact be three galaxies located in the same area of the sky but somewhat distant from one another. The largest galaxy, in the center, is a barred spiral galaxy. One of its spiral arms seems to just barely overlap the other spiral galaxy on the right. The third member of the trio is a small compact galaxy on the left side of the image. All of the galaxies are adorned with bright blue knots of star formation, but there seems to be little evidence -- such as the distortion of the galaxies as gravity tugs at their shapes -- for interaction.

Read the news release about Arp 274 on NewsCenter.

Download the high-resolution wallpaper of Arp 274 from Gallery.

About the Contest

You're In Control! In 1609, Galileo turned his telescope on the night sky for the first time. Now, 400 years later, your vote helped decide where to point modern astronomy's most famous telescope.

"Hubble's Next Discovery -- You Decide" is part of the International Year of Astronomy (IYA), the celebration of the 400th anniversary of Galileo's observations. People around the world voted to select the next object the Hubble Space Telescope would view, choosing from a list of objects Hubble had never observed before. The winning image has been released during the IYA's 100 Hours of Astronomy, April 2-5, a global astronomy event geared toward encouraging as many people as possible to experience the night sky.


Star-Forming Region: NGC 6334
Image 1
3rd place with 21475 votes.

NGC 6334 is a place where stars are born. Giant clouds of gas and dust in interstellar space collapse, forming thousands of new stars. The hot, young stars emit high-energy radiation that causes the remaining gas to glow. Star-forming regions are some of the most beautiful sights in astronomy.
Planetary Nebula: NGC 6072
Image 2
6th place with 6426 votes.

NGC 6072 is called a planetary nebula, but it has nothing to do with planets. The nebula is really all that remains after the death of a star. When medium-sized stars run out of fuel, they shed their outer layers into space -- something like blowing a smoke bubble amongst the stars. At the center rests the dying ember of the core of the star. Planetary nebulae can exhibit amazing and intricate structures.
Planetary Nebula: NGC 40
Image 3
5th place with 6582 votes.

Planetary nebulae, like NGC 40, were orignally thought to be associated with planets forming around a star. We now know that these glowing gas shells are the result of outbursts from a dying star. This nebula is rather bright and appears overexposed in the black and white survey image. A Hubble image of this object would be able to capture the subtle details and gorgeous structure not captured here.
Spiral Galaxy: NGC 5172
Image 4
2nd place with 26987 votes.

NGC 5172 is a spiral galaxy containing more than a 100 billion stars, along with vast clouds of gas and dust. Within a thin disk, the spiral arms exhibit a pinwheel structure. Along the spiral arms, dark dust clouds collapse to create star-forming regions, leading to bright clusters of new stars. Spiral galaxies can be both colorful and majestic.
Edge-on Galaxy: NGC 4289
Image 5
4th place with 11451 votes.

NGC 4289 is a spiral galaxy viewed edge-on to the disk. This means that we can't see the spiral arms -- instead, we can see just how thin the disk is, and examine the dust lanes at the midplane of the disk and the stars that extend above and below it. Edge-on galaxies provide a striking and unusual view of the structure of spiral galaxies.
Interacting Galaxies: Arp 274
Winner Image 6
1st place with 67021 votes.

Arp 274 is a pair of galaxies. Drawn together by their gravity, they are starting to interact. The spiral shapes of these galaxies are mostly intact, but evidence can be seen of the gravitational distortions they are creating within each other. When galaxies interact and merge together, the gas clouds inside them often form tremendous numbers of new stars.