Field of Galaxies (image)

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Caption

New data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope provides further evidence for tidal disruption in the galaxy NGC 1052-DF4. This result explains a previous finding that this galaxy is missing most of its dark matter. By studying the galaxy's light and globular cluster distribution, astronomers have concluded that the gravitational forces of the neighboring galaxy NGC 1035 stripped the dark matter from NGC 1052-DF4 and are now tearing the galaxy apart. This image, created from images forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2, shows the sky around NGC 1052-DF4.

Credit

ESA/Hubble, NASA, Digitized Sky Survey 2; Acknowledgment: Davide de Martin

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