The two galaxies were discovered on 10 April 1785 by William Herschel. The two are located about 330 million light-years (100 megaparsecs) away from the Earth.[4] Arp 87 was observed by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2007, which revealed massive clouds of gas and dust flowing from one galaxy to another. Additionally, both galaxies appear to have been distorted.[5]