This group of three (or maybe four) galaxies is performing a slow dance, taking place over millions of years. The group is held together by the gravitational forces acting between them.

Photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope, the image reveals the dust lanes of the largest member, which is actually disk shaped but tilted so that we see it nearly edge-on. The dust lanes are due to inter-stellar dust silhouetted against the galaxy's background starlight.

Both this large galaxy and its elliptical neighbour (the glowing fuzzy ball, above and to the right of the large galaxy) are believed to harbour black holes at their centres.

A third group member, the spiral galaxy at the top of the picture may be actively forming stars. These three galaxies are so close to each other that gravitational forces disrupt their structure.

The small spiral directly above the large galaxy could either be a fourth member or an unrelated background object.

NOTES: Photo taken 1999. The distance of the group from Earth is 400 million light years. The group diameter is 170,000 light years. Hickson refers to Paul Hickson, Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of British Columbia, Canada.

Photo Credit: Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI/NASA)