This object is a pair of merging galaxies located 430 million light years away in the constellation of Draco at a declination of +52 degrees. The main portion of this pair spans 30 arc-seconds in our apparent view, which corresponds to an actual diameter of 60,000 light years. The star stream extent of this pair is over 400,000 light years.
This is another one of those galaxy pairs, like the recent image of
NGC 5514 that I posted, that reminds me of the famous
Antennae Galaxies. Our apparent views of these systems are similar, as are the overlapping central regions and the long opposing tidal tails. I like the contrasting blue and yellow colors of the two cores.
Many distant galaxies are visible in the background.
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