It has a nice ring to it, 25Jul11

[Roy]

I saw this picture before in APOD, http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap040426.html , with the usual "what could it be but colliding galaxies" explanation, remarking that the colliding galaxy had moved out of the frame of the picture - yet the picture shows two other undisturbed nearby galaxies. A year and a half later the picture shows up again - but the two galaxies are now out of the frame, so the picture is what is shown here http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap051022.html . Presumably the cropping was done to preserve the same explanatory remarks, without the contradictory picture of the other two galaxies. A case of "who you going to believe - me or your lying eyes"?
What concerns me is, does the EU explanation going with the cropped picture shown in TPOD still work with the full-field picture? My own thought, seeing all three galaxies, is that these are ellipticals in various stages of becoming spirals as the currents increase in complexity over time, if that makes any sense.

[mharratsc]

I don't see a problem at all with your explanation there, Roy. Most likely the 3 together are a 'family group' of galaxies... but since NASA doesn't believe in galactic families, they chose to 'edit out' the parts they didn't want to believe in.