Hubble Space Telescope captures an unusual multi-armed galaxy merger

The Hubble Space Telescope has captured a stunning galaxy CGCG 396-2. NASA shared details about the unusual multi-armed galaxy merger. The official website of the American space agency said that the galaxy captured by Hubble is located at a distance of 520 million light-years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Orion. 

NASA revealed that the observation is a gem from the Galaxy Zoo project, which is a citizen science project. In this unique project, hundreds of thousands of volunteers classified galaxies to help scientists solve a problem of astronomical proportions. A way to sort through the vast amounts of data generated by robotic telescopes. 

It is understood that the most astronomically intriguing objects from the Galaxy Zoo were selected for follow-up for the observations with Hubble after a public vote. NASA revealed that CGCG 396-2 is one such object which was captured in this image by Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys. 

The project came into existence when an astronomer was set on the task of classifying more than 900 000 galaxies by eye. NASA said that by making a web interface and inviting citizen scientists to contribute to the challenge, the Galaxy Zoo team was able to crowdsource the analysis. NASA revealed that within six months, a legion of 100 000 volunteer citizen astronomers had contributed more than 40 million galaxy classifications.