Check out this rare photograph of a triplet galaxy

A dramatic triplet of galaxies takes centre stage in this latest Picture of the Week from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, which captures a three-way gravitational tug-of-war between interacting galaxies. This system —known as Arp 195— is featured in the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, a list which showcases some of the weirder and more wonderful galaxies in the universe. Observing time with the Hubble Space Telescope is extremely valuable, so astronomers don't want to waste a second. The schedule for Hubble observations is calculated using a computer algorithm which allows the spacecraft to occasionally gather bonus snapshots of data between longer observations. This image of the clashing triplet of galaxies in Arp 195 is one such snapshot. Extra observations such as these do more than provide spectacular images — they also help to identify promising targets to follow up with telescopes such as the upcoming NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. Links Video of Squabbling Galactic Siblings

Via NASA:

A dramatic triplet of galaxies takes center stage in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, which captures a three-way gravitational tug-of-war between interacting galaxies. This system – known as Arp 195 – is featured in the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, a list which showcases some of the weirder and more wonderful galaxies in the universe.

Arp 195 is located approximately 763 million light-years away from Earth in the Lynx constellation. As opposed to your typical spiral galaxy, it's basically three different galaxies that are — as Astronomy.com puts it — "slamming into one another, pulling each other apart and morphing them beyond recognition as they interact." The American Astronomical Society tried to study the phenomenon of "evolutionary connection between nuclear starbursts and active galactic nuclei" as recently as 2019.

Hubble Spots Squabbling Galactic Siblings [NASA.gov]

Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Dalcanton (Public Domain)