UGC 1810
The Rose Galaxies
Capture Credit: NASA, ESA/Hubble
Processing by Kyle Ingersoll
Click image to pinch/zoom
Target Details
These two galaxies, also catalogued as Arp 273, are a pair of interacting galaxies located in the constellation of Andromeda. This particular example of interacting galaxies displays high distortion within the spiral arms of the top galaxy, which is believed to be caused by the lower galaxy actually passing through it.
Gravitational interactions or collisions between galaxies can often cause bursts of stellar formation. In this case, the lower galaxy displays signs of a highly active nucleus, which could have been triggered by the event. At a distance of 340 million light years, UGC 1810 is quite small for many amateur or even professional ground-based telescopes!
Wait, what exactly is a galaxy in the first place? Well, they are essentially the largest “building blocks” of the universe. They contain everything that is smaller than them, from nebulae to stars, planets, moons, comets—you name it, it likely resides within a galaxy.
Click image for a finder chart

Capture Details
This image represents 5.9 hours total exposure on target, through 3 individual filters:
F600LP (Red Longpass)
F475X (Green)
F390W (Blue)
Captured on December 17, 2010, this image was created from Hubble data from proposal 12326: K. Noll (PI), Z. Levay, M. Mutchler, T. Borders, L. Frattare, M. Livio, C. Christian, and H. Bond (Hubble Heritage Team/STScI).

Equipment Details
-
Name: Hubble Space Telescope
Location: Low earth orbit
Coordinates: Variable
Elevation: 559 km -
Ritchey–Chrétien reflector (57.6m focal length)
F600LP (Red Longpass), F475X (Green), F390W (Blue) -
Rate Gyro Assembly (gyroscopic pointing system)
Sun Sensors
Magnetometers
Star Trackers -
Widefield Camera 3/UVIS
Fine Guidance Sensors -
+ ST Operations Control Center (capture)
PixInsight (processing)