NASA / ESA’s Hubble Space Telescope has captured a spectacular image of NGC 4656, which has been nicknamed the Hockey Stick Galaxy, located 30 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Canes Venatici. The name comes from the galaxy’s elongated, warped stick shape that stretches out through space until it curls around at one end to form a striking imitation of a cosmic hockey stick.
Its odd shape is thought to be due to an interaction between NGC 4656 and a couple of near neighbors, NGC 4631 and NGC 4627, a small elliptical galaxy. These galactic interactions can completely reshape a celestial object by shifting and warping its constituent gas, stars, as well as dust into bizarre configurations.
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The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has spied a large number of interacting galaxies over the years, from the cosmic rose of Arp 273 to the egg-penguin duo of Arp 142 and the pinwheel swirls of Arp 240,” said the NASA Hubble Mission Team.
