A Minuet of Galaxies
This troupe of four galaxies, known as Hickson Compact Group 87 (HCG 87), is performing an intricate dance orchestrated by the mutual gravitational forces acting between them. The dance is a slow, graceful minuet, occurring over a time span of hundreds of millions of years.
Credit:
About the Image
NASA press release
NASA caption
NASA caption
| Id: | opo9931a |
| Type: | Observation |
| Release date: | 2 September 1999, 18:00 |
| Size: | 1500 x 1470 px |
About the Object
| Name: | HCG 87, Hickson Compact Group 87 |
| Type: | • Local Universe : Galaxy : Grouping : Cluster |
| Distance: | 400 million light years |
Colours & filters
| Band | Wavelength | Telescope |
| Optical B |
450 nm | Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 |
| Optical V |
555 nm | Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 |
| Optical R |
675 nm | Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 |
| Infrared I |
814 nm | Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2 |
