NGC 695 is a peculiar galaxy which looks like a revolving tornado.

It is a disturbed spiral galaxy, seen face-on, with loosely wound spiral arms. Knotty star-forming regions are tangled in a mesh of dust and gas. NGC 695 is in an interaction with a small companion located just outside the image to the left. Scientists believe that this is a recent but relatively weak interaction. NGC 695 is located in the constellation of Aries, the Ram, about 450 million light-years away from Earth.

This image is part of a large collection of 59 images of merging galaxies taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and released on the occasion of its 18th anniversary on 24th April 2008.

Credit:

NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration and A. Evans (University of Virginia, Charlottesville/NRAO/Stony Brook University)