Credit: NASA, ESA, and M. Livio and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Arp 274, also known as NGC 5679, is a system of three galaxies that appear to be partially overlapping in the image, although they may be at somewhat different distances. The spiral shapes of two of these galaxies appear mostly intact. The third galaxy (to the far left) is more compact, but shows evidence of star formation. Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 was used to image Arp 274 on April 1-2, the winning target in the Space Telescope Science Institute's "You Decide" competition in celebration of the International Year of Astronomy (IYA). Blue, visible, and infrared filters were combined with a filter that isolates hydrogen emission.