---
title: "Gems of the Galaxy Zoos"
chunk: 2/2
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gems_of_the_Galaxy_Zoos"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:14:34.735361+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

In October 2023, the magazine Sky and Telescope featured an article entitled  "Unearthing galactic gems". In it, the science journalist Madison Goldberg summarises the project and talks to Tom Brown from the Space Telescope Science Institute about the process of gap-fillers. Spare Hubble time had been used before with the 45 minute "snapshot programs" but some unscheduled time remained. Brown said: "It just seemed like a waste to be throwing that time on the floor. Just a handful of minutes here and there, but still, it adds up." And so, the gap-filler project started using those small gaps in the timetable to take 11 minute exposures.
Bill Keel, project lead scientist, explained that unusual galaxies can help us understand the universe today. He described the ZooGems category of 'overlapping galaxy pairs'. He said: "What’s unusual there is not the galaxies themselves, but the fact that one sits neatly behind the other in telescopic images." Samantha Brunker, a scientist studying Green Pea galaxies, said that the variety of unusual targets included in ZooGems is special. "If you’re going to paint a whole picture, you can’t leave out the weird things."

== Various objects ==
NGC 1175, nicknamed the 'Peanut galaxy' is a barred spiral galaxy, approximately 252 million light years away. This has a peculiar morphology with the inner regions being thicker in some than in others, which has caused a 'boxy' appearance reminding the astronomers of an unshelled peanut.
NGC 2292 and NGC 2293 are two ellipticals, nicknamed the 'Greater Pumpkin', that have merged at about 120 million light years away. These interacting galaxies will eventually become a giant spiral, an event rare enough that there are only a few other examples in the Universe.
The VV-689 system, nicknamed the 'Angel Wing', is two galaxies merging. This interaction has left the resulting collision almost completely symmetrical (top of article).
The HST image of CGCG 396-2 shows an uncommon multi-armed merger 520 million light years from earth.
Two spiral galaxies, SDSS J115331 and LEDA 2073461, over a billion light years away, appear to be colliding. The effect caused by line-of-sight is likely by chance as the two are not actually interacting (image right hand side).

== See also ==
Citizen Science
Cosmic dust
Irregular galaxy
Virtual volunteering
Zooniverse

== References ==

== External links ==

The Zoogems website