In the new picture, galaxies are seen entangled in the ‘Queen’s hair’

SCIENCE: The Hubble Space Telescope has captured two entangled galaxies whose interaction has led to knots in the “queen’s hair.” The galaxy pair, formally known as MCG+05-31-045, is located 390 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices, which means “hair of Berenice” in Latin and refers to Queen Berenice II, ruler of Ptolemaic Egypt more than 2,000 years ago. The larger elliptical galaxy is pulling material from a smaller neighboring galaxy, distorting its spiral arms.

In turn, the tangled strands of interstellar material fuel new star formation in the larger galaxy, while the smaller companion galaxy will eventually be left with only old stars and little or no gas at all, according to a statement from the European Space Agency (ESA). (Hubble is a joint mission of NASA and ESA.) “But this process will not be complete for many millions of years — until then, Queen Berenice II will have to deal with knots in her hair!” ESA officials said in the statement, which accompanied the new Hubble image.
The large elliptical galaxy can be seen at the center of the new Hubble image, which has an overall oval shape and bright core. To the left of this galaxy is a smaller companion with two distinct spiral arms. A faint stream of matter with some bright spots can be seen between the two galaxies, connecting one of the spiral arms to the large elliptical galaxy.
The pair of entangled galaxies belong to a larger group known as the Coma galaxy group. Many of the galaxies in this group have gone through similar processes of merging with larger companions.