Space Image of the Day Gallery (December 2015)

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Two into One

ESA/Hubble & NASA; Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt (Geckzilla)

Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2015: Galaxy NGC 6052 lies roughly 230 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Hercules. Two separate galaxies merge together to create this new structure with a a highly chaotic shape. Eventually it will settle into a stable shape. Image released Dec. 28, 2015.

— Tom Chao

Star Cluster

Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona

Thursday, Dec. 31, 2015: Adam Block of the Mount Lemmon SkyCenter at the University of Arizona captured globular cluster M15 during December 2015. The globular cluster lies about 33,600 light years from Earth, in the constellation of Pegasus. Over 100,000 stars fill M15.

— Tom Chao

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Tom Chao
Tom Chao
Tom Chao has contributed to SPACE.com as a producer and writer since 2000. As a writer and editor, he has worked for the Voyager Company, Time Inc. New Media, HarperCollins and Worth Publishers. He has a bachelor’s degree in Cinema Production from the University of Southern California, and a master’s degree from NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Tom on Google+.