This object is a pair of spiral galaxies located 55 million light years away in the constellation of Virgo. NGC 4568 is the larger galaxy and is in front. NGC 4567 is the smaller galaxy. They are nicknamed the Siamese Twins, and sometimes called the Butterfly Galaxies. The size of the largest galaxy is 3.8 arc-minutes in our apparent view, which equals a diameter of 60,000 lightyears.

Some studies conclude that these galaxies are in the process of colliding and merging with each other, but my image does not show much evidence of that. The image shows that these two galaxies overlap visually, but I don't see any signs that they are gravitationally interacting, such as unusual star streams or distorted arms. However, there are quite a few bright areas indicating possible star clusters and HII regions, which could be active star formation areas initiated by gravitational interaction. Interestingly, this pair is not part of the Arp catalog of peculiar galaxies.

My favorite aspect of the image is that the galaxies differ slightly in color, one yellowish and one bluish. I assume that this color difference is due to a difference in age. These two galaxies seem to be amazingly similar in structure, in terms of their core, their arms and their dust lanes. It is almost as if someone made a carbon copy of one, but then changed the color and tilt. Strange.

Interestingly, the two other fainter galaxies in this image (IC 3578 to the left and NGC 4564 to the right) are also contrasting blue and yellow colors, but in the reverse order of the twins.

I am puzzled about the purple fringes around the galaxies, and whether it is "natural". It looks like an artifact to me, but I am not sure how it got there. I have noticed this fringe in a number of RGB galaxy images that I have processed lately with longer integration times. Interestingly, if I significantly reduce the image saturation, the purple cast is still there. If anyone has any ideas, please comment below.