Monday, February 2, 2026

Hubble And The Fingerprints Of An Ancient Merger

NGC 7722 is a lenticular galaxy about 185 million light-years away. The Hubble captured this image when following up on a supernova that was detected here in 2022. The supernova isn't visible in the image, but this dramatic portrait doesn't need an exploding stellar diva to capture out attention. Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. J. Foley (UC Santa Cruz), Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA; Acknowledgment: Mehmet Yüksek

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows NGC 7722, a lenticular galaxy about 187 million light-years away in the constellation Pegasus. This “lens-shaped” galaxy sits in between more familiar spiral alaxies and elliptical galaxies in the galaxy classification scheme. The dark, dramatic dust lanes are the fingerprints of an ancient galaxy merger.



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