The image shows the
galaxy NGC 3718, which NASA officials say is a "highly disturbed spiral," meaning its formation was disrupted.
As the galaxy gets into the
gravitational well from the neighboring galaxy NGC 3729, that galactic interaction pulls NGC 3718 into an S-shaped warp.
The galaxies are separated
by 150,000 light-years, with NGC 3729 not shown in this view from the Hubble Space Telescope.
NGC 3718 is also called
Arp 214, recognizing its placement in the 1966 Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, constructed by Halton Arp
The Hubble telescope was
focusing on the nucleus of the galaxy, which is hard to see because of the amount of dust in the way.
Infrared light allowed Hubble
to peer through "as part of a study of the central regions of disk-shaped galaxies, with prominent bulges of stars in multiple environments