|Elliptical M60, Spiral NGC 4647| Giant elliptical galaxy M60
and spiral galaxy NGC 4647 do look like an odd couple in this
sharp cosmic portrait from the Hubble Space Telescope. But they
are found in a region of space where galaxies tend to gather, on
the eastern side of the nearby About 54 million light-years
distant, bright M60's simpler egg-like shape is created by its
randomly swarming older stars, while NGC 4647's young blue
stars, gas and dust are organized into winding arms rotating in
a flattened disk. Spiral NGC 4647 is estimated to be more
distant than M60, some 63 million light-years away. as Arp 116,
the pair of galaxies may be on the verge of a significant
gravitational M60 (aka NGC 4649) is about 120,000 light-years
across. The smaller NGC 4647 spans around 90,000 light-years,
about the size of our own Milky Way. Hubble Heritage Team