NGC 2146 (2012)

A closeup of strained galaxy NGC 2146. You might notice the little “finger” of missing data at the bottom. It’s where the occulting bar blocked out some light. Occulting bars are useful for keeping bright stars from drowning an image with their brightness, which would keep us from seeing all the details surrounding it.

Data used:
HST_10187_04_ACS_HRC_F435W_sci
HST_10187_04_ACS_HRC_F555W_sci
HST_10187_04_ACS_HRC_F814W_sci

Copyright information:
Hubble data is public domain, but I put a lot of work into combining it into beautiful color images. The minimal credit line should read: NASA / ESA / J. Schmidt

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.