CGCG 396-002 is an unusual merging galaxy located in Orion. Its velocity with respect to the cosmic microwave background is , which corresponds to a Hubble distance of . The first known reference to this galaxy comes from volume V of the Catalogue of Galaxies and of Clusters of Galaxies, compiled by Fritz Zwicky in 1965.
CGCG 396-002 is a radio galaxy, and is notable for its many arms and unique structure. The central part of the galaxy spans 50,000 light-years apart, but the arms surrounding it span outwards up to 165-170,000 light years.
In 2022 it was rediscovered in the Galaxy Zoo project, in which it was voted as one of the most interesting objects and to be imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope.
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