A tadpole swimming in a starry sea

Credit: NASA, H. Ford (JHU), G. Illing­worth (UCSC/LO), M.Clampin (STScI), G. Har­tig (STScI), the ACS Sci­ence Team, and ESA)

This tad­pole, a galaxy called UGC 10214, has a tail made up of stars that’s 280,000 light years long. This odd spi­ral galaxy seems to be swim­ming through space. Long ago, the larger galaxy crashed with a smaller galaxy, seen above and to the left. The crash dis­torted and dis­rupted the Tad­pole Galaxy leav­ing some stars behind.

Even though galax­ies are spaced far apart, col­li­sions are not uncom­mon. Grav­ity is caus­ing our Milky Way Galaxy to inch closer to our galac­tic neigh­bor Androm­eda Galaxy. In about 2 bil­lion years, stars of both spi­ral galax­ies will merge into a larger galaxy.

This tad­pole lives in the con­stel­la­tion Draco, the dragon, about 420 mil­lion light-years away. The image was taken by the Hub­ble Space Tele­scope in 2002.