This Hubble Picture of the Week shows the spiral galaxy IC 3225, about 100 million light-years away, which looks as though it has been fired from a cannon. Its disc is trailed by a tail of gas streaming behind it. IC 3225 is one of more than 1,300 galaxies in the Virgo cluster, where hot gas fills the space between galaxies and the cluster's huge mass sends galaxies racing through it. Moving through this dense gas creates ram pressure, which strips gas out of a galaxy. Astronomers think IC 3225 went through this process in the past, which left one side compressed with more star formation and the other stretched out. A close encounter with a neighbour may also have contributed to its distorted shape.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.