APOD 2.3

This backdrop that looks like a piece pulled from the Star Trek archives is the Spiral Galaxy Arp 188--also known as the Tadpole Galaxy--swirls 420 million light-years away, in the farthest north of the circumpolar dragon, Draco. The blue studded tail itself is 280 light-years in length, legend telling of an intrusive galaxy encountering the Tadpole long ago, disrupting the flow and using its own powerful gravity to lure out trails of dusty clusters, thus forming the tail before leaving. The other galaxy in this tail is the Cartwheel Galaxy, who lies 300 light-years away. Likely, as the galaxy ages, like a frog, the Tadpole will lose its namesake tail, the clusters forming orbiting satellites. Maybe within the next few thousand years, astronomers should consider calling it the Frog Galaxy!