Mice Galaxies (NGC 4676) – Hubble Space Telescope Image

NGC 4676, better known as the Mice Galaxies, occupies the right half of this Hubble Space Telescope view as a pair of interacting galaxies caught in a strikingly uneven arrangement. One is compact and cream-coloured, its bright centre enclosed by a diffuse halo; the other extends diagonally beneath it, opening into a broad blue stream whose delicate outer strands fade into darkness.

The system lies around 300 million light years from Earth in the constellation Coma Berenices. Against that distance, the clarity of its structure is remarkable: concentrated cores, mottled inner regions and faintly luminous extensions remain distinct, while the surrounding field is scattered with tiny points and softly coloured background forms.

Warm cream and orange gather around the galaxies’ brightest regions, edged by cooler blue. These colours are set against a near-black field, giving the pair an almost suspended quality. The result is both serene and visibly unsettled: two defined concentrations of light embedded within forms that stretch far beyond them.

A closer look

The elongated galaxy provides the image’s strongest line. Beginning near the bright central pairing, its light travels downwards and outwards before thinning into several narrow blue strands along the right-hand edge. The stream is not uniform: brighter knots and darker interruptions give it a finely worked texture, particularly where the cream-coloured centre gives way to the cooler outer material.

Above and to the left, the second galaxy is quieter in outline but dense in detail. Its compact core glows through a pale surrounding haze, with darker patches breaking the light near its inner region. The apparent closeness of the two galaxies creates the visual tension of the composition, while the open darkness to the left makes their extended shapes feel even more pronounced.

The background becomes increasingly absorbing at large scale. Fine white points are interspersed with dim orange and red specks, and a faint curled form can be discerned near the lower centre. Some are sharp, others barely emerge from the black, producing a field with considerable depth without distracting from the interacting pair.

Image details and provenance

• Subject: Mice Galaxies, NGC 4676
• Object type: Interacting galaxies
• Constellation: Coma Berenices
• Distance from Earth: 300 million light years
• Telescope: Hubble Space Telescope
• Original release date: 30 April 2002, 15:00
• Image credit: NASA , Holland Ford (JHU), the ACS Science Team and ESA

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