Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2024 July 15 [2]A spiral galaxy is shown on the upper left with a really long tail of stars and blue-glowing gas trailing to the lower left. Please see the explanation for more detailed information. The Tadpole Galaxy from Hubble Image Credit: [3]Hubble Legacy Archive, [4]ESA, [5]NASA; Processing: [6]Harshwardhan Pathak Explanation: Why does this galaxy have such a long tail? In this stunning vista, based on image data from the [7]Hubble Legacy Archive, distant galaxies form a dramatic backdrop for disrupted spiral [8]galaxy Arp 188, the Tadpole Galaxy. The [9]cosmic tadpole is a mere 420 million light-years distant toward the northern constellation of the Dragon ([10]Draco). Its [11]eye-catching tail is about 280 thousand [12]light-years long and features massive, bright blue star clusters. One [13]story goes that a more compact intruder galaxy crossed in front of [14]Arp 188 - from right to left in this view - and was [15]slung around behind the [16]Tadpole by their gravitational attraction. During the [17]close encounter, tidal forces drew out the [18]spiral galaxy's stars, gas, and dust forming the spectacular tail. The [19]intruder galaxy itself, estimated to lie about 300 thousand light-years behind the Tadpole, can be seen through foreground spiral arms at the upper right. [20]Following its terrestrial [21]namesake, the [22]Tadpole Galaxy will likely lose [23]its tail as it grows older, the tail's star clusters forming smaller satellites of the large spiral galaxy. APOD in world languages: [24]Arabic ([25]IG), [26]Bulgarian, [27]Catalan, [28]Chinese (Beijing), [29]Chinese (Taiwan), [30]Czech, [31]Dutch, [32]Farsi, [33]French, [34]German, [35]Hebrew, [36]Japanese, [37]Portuguese, [38]Russian, [39]Serbian, [40]Slovenian, [41]Spanish, [42]Taiwanese, [43]Tur[44]kish, and [45]Ukrainian Tomorrow's picture: interstellar mountains __________________________________________________________________ [46]< | [47]Archive | [48]Submissions | [49]Index | [50]Search | [51]Calendar | [52]RSS | [53]Education | [54]About APOD | [55]Discuss | [56]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [57]Robert Nemiroff ([58]MTU) & [59]Jerry Bonnell ([60]UMCP) NASA Official: Amber Straughn [61]Specific rights apply. [62]NASA Web Privacy, [63]Accessibility, [64]Notices; A service of: [65]ASD at [66]NASA / [67]GSFC, [68]NASA Science Activation & [69]Michigan Tech. U. 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