View allAll Photos Tagged InteractingGalaxies
This scene features a trio of interacting galaxies found in the constellation of Virgo, being some 70-90 million light years away from Earth. The largest galaxy in the group is NGC 5566, which is a barred spiral galaxy stretching nearly 150,000 light years in diameter. Having widely sweeping spiral arms, with dark dusty lanes, these arms are speckled with new star forming regions throughout. The elongated galaxy to the left of NGC 5566 is the heavily distorted NGC5560. You can just see faint dusty interconnections between NGC 5560 and NGC 5566, providing us some clues that these are in fact interacting. The lower blueish galaxy NGC5569 does not appear to be disturbed, and maybe placed slightly in the foreground.
In the darkness of the surrounding space, the speckled background indicates a sea of background objects, all being in the significant distance.
This image represents only 34% of the cameras full frame, composed of luminance, red, green, blue, and hydrogen alpha filtered colour channels. Thanks for having a look.
Hi res link:
live.staticflickr.com/65535/50577593972_849ecd82d2_o.jpg
Information about the image:
Center (RA, Dec):(215.064, 3.940)
Center (RA, hms):14h 20m 15.436s
Center (Dec, dms):+03° 56' 24.737"
Size:28.7 x 18.8 arcmin
Radius:0.286 deg
Pixel scale:0.733 arcsec/pixel
Orientation:Up is 126 degrees E of N
Instrument: Planewave CDK 12.5 | Focal Ratio: F8
Camera: STXL-11000 + AOX | Mount: AP900GTO
Camera Sensitivity: Lum & Ha: BIN 1x1, RGB: BIN 2x2
Exposure Details: Total: 22.75 hours | Lum: 47 x 900 sec [11.75hr], Ha: 15 x 1200 sec [5.0hr], RGB 16 x 450sec each [6.0hrs]
Viewing Location: Central Victoria, Australia.
Observatory: ScopeDome 3m
Date: June-July 2020
Software Enhancements: CCDStack2, CCDBand-Aid, PS, Pixinsight
Author: Steven Mohr
This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope feels incredibly three-dimensional for a piece of deep-space imagery. The image shows Arp 282, an interacting galaxy pair composed of the Seyfert galaxy NGC 169 (bottom) and the galaxy IC 1559 (top). Interestingly, both galaxies have monumentally energetic cores known as active galactic nuclei (AGN), although that is difficult to tell from this image, which is fortunate. If the image revealed the full emission of both AGNs, their brilliance would obscure the beautifully detailed tidal interactions we see in this image. Tidal forces occur when an object’s gravity causes another object to distort or stretch. The direction of tidal forces is away from the lower-mass object and toward the higher mass object. When two galaxies tidally interact, gas, dust, and even entire star systems can move toward one galaxy and away from the other. The image reveals this process in action as delicate streams of matter visibly link the two galaxies.
Astronomers now accept that an important aspect of how galaxies evolve is the way they interact with one another. Galaxies can merge, collide, or brush past one another – each interaction significantly affecting their shapes and structures. As common as such interactions may be, it is rare to capture an image of two galaxies interacting in such a visibly dynamic way.
Text credit: European Space Agency (ESA)
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Dalcanton, Dark Energy Survey, Department of Energy (DOE), Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory/NoirLab/National Science Foundation/Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS); Acknowledgment: J. Schmidt
For more information: www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/hubble-views-a-co...
M51 “Whirlpool” Galaxy and tidal streams. M51 or NGC 5194 is a spiral galaxy 31 million light years distant in the constellation Canes Venatici, very close to the handle of the Big Dipper. Very extensively imaged by amateur astronomers and studied by professionals, NGC 5194 has a companion galaxy which is the “tail” portion of the Whilpool Galaxy to the left, NGC 5195.
This is a closely interacting system and as a result of the gravitational interaction between the two galaxies, galactic tidal streams or plumes of stars and gas are created when galaxies are disrupted by the strong gravitational pull. The uneven gravitational pull, or tidal force, stretches and squeezes the smaller galaxy, ripping stars away from it to orbit the larger galaxy. These streams can be thousands of light-years long and wrap around the larger galaxy as shown here. The plume extends toward the top of the image.
Location: SkyPi Remote Observatory, Pie Town NM US
Telescope: Orion Optics UK AG14 (F3.8)
Camera: QHY268M
Mount: 10 Micron GM3000
Data: LRGB 6,6,5.5, 5 hours respectively
Processing: Pixinsight
This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows two of the galaxies in the galactic triplet Arp 248 – also known as Wild's Triplet – which lies around 200 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo. The two large spiral galaxies visible in this image – which flank a smaller, unrelated background spiral galaxy – appear connected by a luminous bridge. This elongated stream of stars and interstellar dust is known as a tidal tail, and it formed by the mutual gravitational attraction of the two foreground galaxies.
This observation comes from a project which delves into two galleries of weird and wonderful galaxies: A Catalogue of Southern Peculiar Galaxies and Associations, compiled by astronomers Halton Arp and Barry Madore, and the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, compiled by Halton Arp. Each collection contains a menagerie of spectacularly peculiar galaxies, including interacting galaxies such as Arp 248, as well as one- or three-armed spiral galaxies, galaxies with shell-like structures, and a variety of other space oddities.
Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys scoured this assortment of eccentric galaxies in search of promising candidates for future observations with the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, and Hubble itself. With the wealth of astronomical objects to study in the night sky, projects such as this, which guide future observations, are a valuable investment of observing time.
Text credit: European Space Agency (ESA)
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Dark Energy Survey/Department of Energy/Fermilab Cosmic Physics Center/Dark Energy Camera/Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory/NOIRLab/National Science Foundation/AURA Astronomy; J. Dalcanton
For more information: www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/hubble-inspects-a...
The image presented spans about 30 arc minutes side to side. To give some perspective or scale to the image, it would take light 600,000 years to travel across the space shown in the photo at the group's estimated distance of 70 million light-years. The three galaxies presented are embedded within an extended ring of neutral hydrogen, with its centre on NGC 3169 (left). In time, these galaxies will merge to form a single galaxy.
As these galaxies begin to merge, we can see signs that they are starting to be pulled apart. The faint wisps surrounding NGC 3169 are its outer spiral arms being pulled off, and lots of luminous gas has been drawn out from its disk. This gravitational tug of war has also fragmented the dust lanes in its companion NGC 3166.
NGC 3169 (left) is an unbarred spiral galaxy. Its arms are worth a second look as they are extremely tightly wound about its core, and the effects of gravity pulling then outwards have resulted in an unusual look. In addition, this interaction has helped to create a crazily extended halo of sorts. Several hydrogen-rich areas can be identified by their reddish colouration. It is believed that a burst of star formation took place in its nucleus roughly one billion years ago.
An interesting note is that supernova (SN) activity has been captured two times in NGC 3169 fairly recently. There are two types of SN: Type I and Type II. Type I does not show hydrogen in the spectra, whereas, Type II supernovae do show hydrogen in their spectra. Type II, occur as explosions of massive stars (more than 8 times the mass of our Sun). In 1984, a Type II-L SN 1984E was discovered in NGC 3169 (left), and in 2003, a second SN, designated SN 2003cg, was discovered; a Type 1a SN.
The second of the larger galaxies NGC 3166 (centre) is estimated to be around 160,000 lightyears from NGC 3169. It has a very small, and very bright nucleus within a short smooth bar (0.5' x 0.14'). Several dark vanes can be is seen running outwards from the core. The close proximity of the two larger galaxies is creating a gravitational distortion that has warped the disk of 3166.
NGC 3165 is a small and dim Spiral Galaxy that is also a member of the group.
Frame Size:29.9 x 20 arcmin
Radius:0.300 deg
Exposure Details:
Lum 69 X 900 Bin 1
Red 16 X 450 Bin 2
Green 16 X 450 Bin 2
Blue 24 X 450 Bin 2
Ha 13 X 1800 Bin 1
Total time 30.75 hours
Instruments Used:
10 Inch RCOS fl 9.1
Astro Physics AP-900 Mount
SBIG STL 11000m
FLI Filter Wheel
Astrodon Lum, Red, Green, Blue Filters
Baader Planetarium H-alpha 7nm Narrowband-Filter
Software Used
CCDStack (calibration, alignment, data rejection, stacking)
Photoshop CS 6 (Image processing)
Thanks for looking
Arp 273
NASA APOD 1/9/2025 apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250109.html
"A rose by any other name". The 273rd entry in Halton Arp's Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies (published in 1966) is often referred to as the "rose galaxy" or "cosmic rose". Arp 273 is a pair of interacting galaxies, 300 million light years away in the constellation Andromeda.
The larger of the spiral galaxies, known as UGC 1810, is about five times more massive than the smaller galaxy. (The Uppsala General Catalogue of Galaxies (UGC) is a catalogue of 12,921 galaxies visible from the northern hemisphere. It was first published in 1973).
The larger companion has a disc that is tidally distorted into a rose-like shape by the gravitational pull of the smaller galaxy below it, known as UGC 1813. The smaller galaxy shows distinct signs of active star formation at its nucleus, and it is thought that the smaller galaxy has actually passed through the larger.
The apparent size of Arp 273 is only around 2 arcmin and it is quite dim, close to magnitude 14.
A number of galaxies can be seen throughout the field
Capture info:
Location: SkyPi Remote Observatory, Pie Town, NM US
Telescope: Officina Stellare RiDK 400mm
Camera: QHY 600M
Mount: Paramount MEII
Data:
LRGB 9.5, 7.5, 4.5, 5 hours respectively; 2x2 binning; 0.56 arcsec/ pixel
Processing: Pixinsight
This Hubble Space Telescope captures a three-way gravitational tug-of-war between interacting galaxies. This system —known as Arp 195— is featured in the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, a list which showcases some of the weirder and more wonderful galaxies in the universe.
Observing time with the Hubble Space Telescope is extremely valuable, so astronomers don't want to waste a second. The schedule for Hubble observations is calculated using a computer algorithm which allows the spacecraft to occasionally gather bonus snapshots of data between longer observations. This image of the clashing triplet of galaxies in Arp 195 is one such snapshot. Extra observations such as these do more than provide spectacular images — they also help to identify promising targets to follow up with telescopes such as the James Webb Space Telescope.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Dalcanton
For more information, visit: esahubble.org/images/potw2130a/
This unusual interacting galaxy pair make for an interesting study.
24 inch CDK telescope.
Telescope live, Chile.
PI, LR
FLI ProLine PL9000 CCD.
11 hours total exposure
12/21
Planewave CDK24
Aperture: 610 mm (24 inches)
Focal Length: 3962 mm
F-ratio: 6.5
Mount: Mathis MI-1000/1250 with absolute encoders
Astrodon MonsterMOAG
El Sauce Observatory
Río Hurtado, Coquimbo Region, Chile
Coordinates: 30.4725° S, 70.7631° W
Elevation: 1525 m
I added colour data from a previous session with a smaller scope - T3 in April 2016.
Close-up of interacting galaxies, large M51 and small NGC 5195 - NGC 5195 has sprayed several plumes of stars into surrounding space.
Distant edge-on spiral galaxy, IC 4277, looks almost dull beside the exuberance of this interacting pair which are also in the Arp catalogue of interacting galaxies (Arp 85).
No one is quite sure how to classify NGC 5195 - it seems to resemble an elliptical galaxy or a spiral core with its disc ripped off which is understandable.
Source: Annals of the Deep Sky, J Kanipe and D Webb, Volume 3. Willmann-Bell Publishers 2016.
17 x 10 min subs taken remotely from Nerpio in Spain with iTelescope T7.
46 x 5 min subs taken remotely from Mayhill, New Mexico with iTelescope T3.
Stacked, drizzled and deconvoluted in PixInsight 1.8 and then high pass/overlay in Photoshop.
Nikon D80 + 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6G | Kerameikos, Athens, Greece, 7 Oct 2007
HST image: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
© 2007, 2011 José Francisco Salgado, PhD
Explore #57 on 14 Aug 2011
20 Aug 2011: 1,000 views
NGC 5363 is the elliptical galaxy in the lower part of the image.
NGC 5364 is the spiral galaxy in the upper half.
They are 50 Mly distant, and are interacting.
Numerous small galaxies are visible in the background.
Imaged from Deep Sky West - Rowe New Mexico, using RCOS 14.5" Ritchey–Chrétien telescope f/9. 3340 mm focal length.
LRGB 8.5 : 5:4:4 hours exposure. 20 hours total exposure.
Transparency and Seeing very good to excellent
March-May 2017
Processed in Pixinsight, and Lightroom.
SBIG 16803 CCD,AO-X
This pair of colliding galaxies (NGC 4038 and 4039) lie in the constellation of Corvus. The long tails are a product of gravity forces and are not an unusual feature of such interactions. The two are in process of merging into a single galaxy.
The galaxies lie 45 million light years distant beyond our Milky Way.
This image was captured under high desert skies near Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA with a telescope of 12" aperture at f/8 and an electrically-cooled CCD camera. Total exposure was 6.5 hours (HaLRGB).
NGC 4038 and NGC 4039 the Antennae Galaxies are in a state of collision. Once normal, spiral galaxies like the Milky Way, the pair began to to collide and merge possibly as long ago as 1.2 billion years. The collision is so violent that stars have been ripped from their host galaxies to form a streaming arc between the two. Far outlying stars and streamers of gas stretch out into space, creating long tidal tails reminiscent of antennae. There are clouds of gas seen in bright pink and red, surrounding bright flashes of blue star forming regions often obscured by dark patches of dust. The rate of star formation is so high that the Antennae Galaxies are said to be in a state of starburst, a period in which all of the gas within the galaxies is being used to form stars. Eventually one large elliptical galaxy will be formed.
Imaged in LRGB and H alpha on our Officina Stellare RiDK 500 telescope at El Sauce (Obstech), Atacama Desert, Chile.
Image Processing: Mike Selby
System control: Voyager by Leonardo Orazi
The Whale Galaxy (NGC 4631) is an edge-on barred spiral galaxy, which is also a starburst galaxy, and The Hockey Stick Galaxy (Galaxies?, NGC 4656/7) are a pair of interacting galaxies. Both lie in the constellation Canes Venatici, and are estimated to be about 30 million light years away.
This is a combination of previously shot color RGB data with the Atik 314L+ and hydrogen-alpha (Hα) data taken wit an Atik 414-EX monochrome camera and Atik narrowband filter. All were guided exposures with a Celestron Edge HD 9.25" scope at f/2.3 with Hyperstar. Preprocessing done in Nebulosity; stacking, channel combination, and processing done in PixInsight; final touches in Photoshop.
Image scale is 2.5"/pixel.
This observation from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope showcases Arp 86, a peculiar pair of interacting galaxies which lies roughly 220 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Pegasus. Arp 86 is composed of the two galaxies NGC 7752 and NGC 7753 – NGC 7753 is the large spiral galaxy dominating this image, and NGC 7752 is its smaller companion. The diminutive companion galaxy almost appears attached to NGC 7753, and it is this peculiarity that has earned the designation “Arp 86” – signifying that the galaxy pair appears in the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies compiled by the astronomer Halton Arp in 1966. The gravitational dance between the two galaxies will eventually result in NGC 7752 being tossed out into intergalactic space or entirely engulfed by its much larger neighbor.
Hubble observed Arp 86 as part of a larger effort to understand the connections between young stars and the clouds of cold gas in which they form. Hubble gazed into star clusters and clouds of gas and dust in a variety of environments dotted throughout nearby galaxies. Combined with measurements from ALMA, a gigantic radio telescope perched high in the Chilean Andes, these Hubble observations provide a treasure trove of data for astronomers working to understand how stars are born.
These observations also helped sow the seeds of future research using the NASA/ESA James Webb Space Telescope. Due to launch later this year, Webb will study star formation in dusty regions like those in the galaxies of Arp 86.
Text credit: European Space Agency (ESA)
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Dark Energy Survey, J. Dalcanton
For more information: www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2021/hubble-watches-an...
The two interacting galaxies making up the pair known as Arp-Madore 608-333 seem to float side by side in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Though they appear serene and unperturbed, the two are subtly warping one another through a mutual gravitational interaction that is disrupting and distorting both galaxies. Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys captured this drawn-out galactic interaction.
The interacting galaxies in Arp-Madore 608-333 are part of an effort to build up an archive of interesting targets for more detailed future study with Hubble, ground-based telescopes, and the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. To build up this archive, astronomers scoured existing astronomical catalogues for a list of targets spread throughout the night sky. They hoped to include objects already identified as interesting and that would be easy for Hubble to observe no matter which direction it was pointing.
Deciding how to award Hubble observing time is a drawn-out, competitive, and difficult process, and the observations are allocated to use every last second of Hubble time available. However, there is a small but persistent fraction of time – around 2-3 percent – that goes unused as Hubble turns to point at new targets. Snapshot programs, such as the one which captured Arp-Madore 608-333, exist to fill this gap and take advantage of the moments between longer observations. Snapshot programs not only produce beautiful images, they enable astronomers to gather as much data as possible with Hubble.
Text credit: European Space Agency (ESA)
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Dark Energy Survey/Department of Energy/Fermilab/Dark Energy Camera (DECam)/Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory/NOIRLab/AURA
For more information: www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/hubble-snaps-a-pa...
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features two interacting galaxies that are so intertwined, they have a collective name – Arp 91. Their delicate galactic dance takes place more than 100 million light-years from Earth. The two galaxies comprising Arp 91 have their own names: the lower galaxy, which looks like a bright spot, is NGC 5953, and the oval-shaped galaxy to the upper right is NGC 5954. In reality, both of them are spiral galaxies, but their shapes appear very different because of their orientation with respect to Earth.
Arp 91 provides a particularly vivid example of galactic interaction. NGC 5953 is clearly tugging at NGC 5954, which looks like it is extending one spiral arm downward. The immense gravitational attraction of the two galaxies is causing them to interact. Such gravitational interactions are common and an important part of galactic evolution. Most astronomers think that collisions between spiral galaxies lead to the formation of another type of galaxy, known as elliptical galaxies. These extremely energetic and massive collisions, however, happen on timescales that dwarf a human lifetime. They take place over hundreds of millions of years, so we should not expect Arp 91 to look any different over the course of our lifetimes!
Text credit: European Space Agency (ESA)
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Dalcanton; Acknowledgment: J. Schmidt
For more information: www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2021/hubble-detects-a-...
The subject of this image is a group of three galaxies, collectively known as NGC 7764A. They were imaged by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, using both its Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3. The two galaxies in the upper right of the image appear to be interacting with one another. The long trails of stars and gas extending from them give the impression that they have both just been struck at great speed, thrown into disarray by the bowling-ball-shaped galaxy to the lower left of the image. In reality, interactions between galaxies happen over very long time periods, and galaxies rarely collide head-on with one another. It is also unclear whether the galaxy to the lower left is interacting with the other two, although they are so relatively close in space that it seems possible that they are. By happy coincidence, the collective interaction between these galaxies has caused the two on the upper right to form a shape, which from our solar system's perspective, resembles the starship known as the USS Enterprise from Star Trek!
NGC 7764A, which lies about 425 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Phoenix, is a fascinating example of just how awkward astronomical nomenclature can be. The three galaxies are individually referred as NGC 7764A1, NGC 7764A2, and NGC 7764A3. This rather haphazard naming makes more sense when we consider that many astronomical catalogs were compiled well over 100 years ago, long before modern technology made standardizing scientific terminology much easier. As it is, many astronomical objects have several different names, or might have names that are so similar to other objects’ names that they cause confusion.
Text credit: European Space Agency (ESA)
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Dalcanton, Dark Energy Survey, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Fermilab (FNAL), Dark Energy Survey Camera (DECam), Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), NoirLab/National Science Foundation/AURA, European Southern Observatory (ESO); Acknowledgment: J. Schmidt
For more information: www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/hubble-spots-a-st...
The magnificent spiral galaxy NGC 2276 looks a bit lopsided in this Hubble Space Telescope snapshot. A bright hub of older yellowish stars normally lies directly in the center of most spiral galaxies. But the bulge in NGC 2276 looks offset to the upper left.
In reality, a neighboring galaxy to the right of NGC 2276 (NGC 2300, not seen here) is gravitationally tugging on its disk of blue stars, pulling the stars on one side of the galaxy outward to distort the galaxy's normal fried-egg appearance.
This sort of "tug of war" between galaxies that pass close enough to feel each other's gravitational pull is not uncommon in the universe. But, like snowflakes, no two close encounters look exactly alike.
In addition, newborn and short-lived massive stars form a bright, blue arm along the upper left edge of NGC 2276. They trace out a lane of intense star formation. This may have been triggered by a prior collision with a dwarf galaxy. It could also be due to NGC 2276 plowing into the superheated gas that lies among galaxies in galaxy clusters. This would compress the gas to precipitate into stars, and trigger a firestorm of starbirth.
The spiral galaxy lies 120 million light-years away, in the northern constellation Cepheus.
Credit: Image: NASA, ESA, STScI, Paul Sell (University of Florida);
Acknowledgement: Leo Shatz
For a view of NGC 2276 with its gravitational companion galaxy, visit: hubblesite.org/contents/media/images/2021/029/01F60KJ7A72...
For more information, visit: hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2021/news-2021-029
M82 or the Cigar galaxy, shines brightly at infrared wavelengths and is remarkable for its star formation activity. The Cigar galaxy experiences gravitational interactions with its galactic neighbor, M81, causing it to have an extraordinarily high rate of star formation — a starburst.
Around the galaxy’s center, young stars are being born 10 times faster than they are inside our entire Milky Way galaxy. Radiation and energetic particles from these newborn stars carve into the surrounding gas, and the resulting galactic wind compresses enough gas to make millions of more stars. The rapid rate of star formation in this galaxy eventually will be self-limiting. When star formation becomes too vigorous, it will consume or destroy the material needed to make more stars. The starburst will then subside, probably in a few tens of millions of years.
This stunning Hubble image of M82 was assembled using observations at different wavelengths. The red in the image represents hydrogen and infrared light, indicating starburst activity. The blue and greenish-yellow color represent visible wavelengths of light.
For more information about Hubble’s observations of M82, see:
hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2006/news-2006-14.html
www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1201a/
hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2017/news-2017-42.html
hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2008/news-2008-02.html
Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Acknowledgment: J. Gallagher (University of Wisconsin), M. Mountain (STScI), and P. Puxley (National Science Foundation)
A spectacular head-on collision between two galaxies fueled the unusual triangular-shaped star-birthing frenzy, as captured in a new image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.
The interacting galaxy duo is collectively called Arp 143. The pair contains the glittery, distorted, star-forming spiral galaxy NGC 2445 at right, along with its less flashy companion, NGC 2444 at left.
Astronomers suggest that the galaxies passed through each other, igniting the uniquely shaped star-formation firestorm in NGC 2445, where thousands of stars are bursting to life on the right-hand side of the image. This galaxy is awash in starbirth because it is rich in gas, the fuel that makes stars. However, it hasn’t yet escaped the gravitational clutches of its partner NGC 2444, shown on the left side of the image. The pair is waging a cosmic tug-of-war, which NGC 2444 appears to be winning. The galaxy has pulled gas from NGC 2445, forming the oddball triangle of newly minted stars.
“Simulations show that head-on collisions between two galaxies is one way of making rings of new stars,” said astronomer Julianne Dalcanton of the Flatiron Institute’s Center for Computational Astrophysics in New York and the University of Washington in Seattle. “Therefore, rings of star formation are not uncommon. However, what’s weird about this system is that it’s a triangle of star formation. Part of the reason for that shape is that these galaxies are still so close to each other and NGC 2444 is still holding on to the other galaxy gravitationally. NGC 2444 may also have an invisible hot halo of gas that could help to pull NGC 2445’s gas away from its nucleus. So they’re not completely free of each other yet, and their unusual interaction is distorting the ring into this triangle.”
NGC 2444 is also responsible for yanking taffy-like strands of gas from its partner, stoking the streamers of young, blue stars that appear to form a bridge between the two galaxies.
These streamers are among the first in what appears to be a wave of star formation that started on NGC 2445’s outskirts and continued inward. Researchers estimate the streamer stars were born between about 50 million and 100 million years ago. But these infant stars are being left behind as NGC 2445 continues to pull slowly away from NGC 2444.
Stars no older than 1 million to 2 million years are forming closer to the center of NGC 2445. Hubble’s keen sharpness reveals some individual stars. They are the brightest and most massive in the galaxy. Most of the brilliant blue clumps are groupings of stars. The pink blobs are giant, young, star clusters still enshrouded in dust and gas.
Although most of the action is happening in NGC 2445, it doesn’t mean the other half of the interacting pair has escaped unscathed. The gravitational tussle has stretched NGC 2444 into an odd shape. The galaxy contains old stars and no new starbirth because it lost its gas long ago, well before this galactic encounter.
“This is a nearby example of the kinds of interactions that happened long ago. It’s a fantastic sandbox to understand star formation and interacting galaxies,” said Elena Sabbi of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland.
The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy in Washington, D.C.
Image Credits: NASA, ESA, Julianne Dalcanton (Center for Computational Astrophysics / Flatiron Inst. and University of Washington); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)
Writer: Donna Weaver (STScI)
For more information: www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/galaxy-collision-...
This striking image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope showcases Arp 298, a stunning pair of interacting galaxies. Arp 298 – which comprises the two galaxies NGC 7469 and IC 5283 – lies roughly 200 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Pegasus. The larger of the two galaxies pictured here is the barred spiral galaxy NGC 7469, and IC 5283 is its diminutive companion. NGC 7469 is also host to an active, supermassive black hole and a bright ring of star clusters.
The “Arp” in this galaxy pair’s name signifies that they are listed in the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies compiled by the astronomer Halton Arp. The Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies is a gallery of weird and wonderful galaxies containing peculiar structures, featuring galaxies exhibiting everything from segmented spiral arms to concentric rings. This interacting galaxy pair is a familiar sight for Hubble – a portrait of the merging galaxies in Arp 298 was published in 2008.
This image of Arp 298, which also contains several background galaxies, contains data from three separate Hubble observing proposals. By combining observations from three proposals, Arp 298 is captured in glorious detail in seven different filters from two of Hubble’s instruments – the Wide Field Camera 3 and the Advanced Camera for Surveys.
This system will be one of the first galaxies observed with the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope as part of the Director's Discretionary Early Release Science Programs in Summer 2022.
Text credit: European Space Agency (ESA)
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Evans, R. Chandar
For more information: www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/hubble-peers-at-p...
This Hubble Space Telescope image captures an unusual close-knit collection of five galaxies, called the Hickson Compact Group 40.
This menagerie includes three spiral-shaped galaxies, an elliptical galaxy, and a lenticular (lens-like) galaxy. Somehow, these different galaxies crossed paths in their evolution to create an exceptionally crowded and eclectic galaxy sampler.
Caught in a leisurely gravitational dance, the whole group is so crowded that it could fit within a region of space that is less than twice the diameter of our Milky Way’s stellar disk.
Though such cozy galaxy groupings can be found in the heart of huge galaxy clusters, these galaxies are notably isolated in their own small patch of the universe, in the direction of the constellation Hydra.
One possibility is that there’s a lot of dark matter (an unknown and invisible form of matter) associated with these galaxies. If they come close together, then the dark matter can form a big cloud within which the galaxies are orbiting. As the galaxies plow through the dark matter they feel a frictional force due to its gravitational effects. This slows their motion and makes the galaxies lose energy so they fall together.
Therefore, this snapshot catches the galaxies at a very special moment in their lifetimes. In about 1 billion years they will eventually collide and merge to form a giant elliptical galaxy.
Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI
Image processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)
For more information, visit: hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2022/news-2022-012
This observation from the Hubble Space Telescope showcases Arp 86, a peculiar pair of interacting galaxies which lies roughly 220 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Pegasus. Arp 86 is composed of the two galaxies NGC 7752 and NGC 7753 — NGC 7753 is the large spiral galaxy dominating this image, and NGC 7752 is its smaller companion. The diminutive companion galaxy almost appears to be attached to NGC 7753, and it is this peculiarity that has earned the designation “Arp 86” — signifying that the galaxy pair appears in the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies compiled by the astronomer Halton Arp in 1966.
The gravitational squabble between the two galaxies is doomed to end catastrophically for NGC 7752. It will eventually either be flung out into intergalactic space or be entirely engulfed by its far larger neighbor.
Credit: ESA/Hubble and NASA, Dark Energy Survey, J. Dalcanton
For more information, visit: esahubble.org/images/potw2142a/
This Hubble Space Telescope image finds the large spiral galaxy, NGC 3227, wrapped in a turbulent gravitational dance with its companion, the elliptical galaxy NGC 3226. The pair – collectively known as Arp 94 – is relatively nearby, between 50 and 60 million light-years away toward the constellation Leo, the Lion. A close look at the area between the two galaxies, reveals faint tidal streams of gas and dust that link the galaxies in their gravitational dance.
NGC 3227 is a Seyfert galaxy, a type of galaxy with a very active nucleus. Seyfert galaxies hold supermassive black holes at their cores. As matter spirals into the black hole, it releases vast amounts of radiation along the black hole’s axis of rotation. giving the galaxy its active nucleus.
Hubble looked at NGC 3227 and 3226 as part of a program to measure black hole masses by observing the dynamics of gas at the centers of bright cluster galaxies. The color red in this image represents both visible red and near infrared wavelengths of light.
For more information, visit: www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/hubble-captures-a...
Visit Hubble's Galaxies at www.nasa.gov/content/discoveries-hubbles-galaxies
This Hubble Space Telescope image of the Hickson Compact Group 31 (HCG 31) of galaxies highlights streams of star-formation as four dwarf galaxies interact. The bright, distorted clump of young blue-white stars (top-right of center) is NGC 1741. Although it appears to be a single galaxy, NGC 1741 is actually a pair of colliding dwarf galaxies. Another dwarf, cigar-shaped galaxy to the pair’s right joins their dance with a thin, blue stream of stars that connects the trio. HGC 31’s fourth member is revealed by a stream of young blue stars that point to the galaxy (bottom-left of center) and indicate its interaction with the other three. The bright object in the center of the image is a star situated between Earth and HCG 31.
Dwarf galaxy encounters are normally seen billions of light-years away, and therefore occurred billions of years ago, but HCG 31 is located some 166 million light-years from Earth, relatively close by cosmic standards. This image emphasizes star-forming regions spurred by the quartet’s gravitational dance. The color blue represents visible blue light and showcases young, hot, blue stars, while the color red represents near-infrared light.
To view an earlier version of this image, see hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2010/news-2010-08.html
Image credit: NASA, ESA, and J. Charlton (Pennsylvania State University); Image processing: G. Kober (NASA Goddard/Catholic University of America)
Visit Hubble's Galaxies at www.nasa.gov/content/discoveries-hubbles-galaxies
A cataclysmic cosmic collision takes center stage in this image taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The image features the interacting galaxy pair IC 1623, which lies around 275 million light-years away in the constellation Cetus (the Whale). The two galaxies are in the final stages of merging, and astronomers expect a powerful inflow of gas to ignite a frenzied burst of star formation in the resulting compact starburst galaxy.
This interacting pair of galaxies is a familiar sight; Hubble captured IC 1623 in 2008 using two filters at optical and infrared wavelengths on the Advanced Camera for Surveys. This image incorporates data from Wide Field Camera 3, and combines observations taken in eight filters spanning infrared to ultraviolet wavelengths to reveal the finer details of IC 1623. Future observations of the galaxy pair with the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope will shed more light on the processes powering extreme star formation in environments such as IC 1623.
Text credit: European Space Agency (ESA)
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Chandar
For more information: www.nasa.gov/image-feature/hubble-images-a-dazzling-dynam...
Appearing within the boundless darkness of space, the Hubble Space Telescope’s snapshot of NGC 34 looks more like an otherworldly, bioluminescent creature from the deep oceans than a galaxy. Lying in the constellation Cetus (The Sea Monster), the galaxy’s outer region appears almost translucent, pinpricked with stars and strange wispy tendrils. The main cause for this galaxy’s odd appearance lies in its past. If we were able to reverse time by a few million years, we would see two spiral galaxies on a direct collision course. When these galaxies crashed into one another, their intricate patterns and spiral arms were permanently disturbed.
This image shows the galaxy's bright center, a result of this merging event that has created a burst of new star formation and lit up the surrounding gas. As the galaxies continue to intertwine and become one, NGC 34’s shape will become more like that of an peculiar galaxy, devoid of any distinct shape.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Adamo et al.
For more information, visit: esahubble.org/images/potw2043a/
A dramatic triplet of galaxies takes center stage in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, which captures a three-way gravitational tug-of-war between interacting galaxies. This system – known as Arp 195 – is featured in the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, a list which showcases some of the weirder and more wonderful galaxies in the universe.
Observing time with Hubble is extremely valuable, so astronomers don't want to waste a second. The schedule for Hubble observations is calculated using a computer algorithm which allows the spacecraft to occasionally gather bonus snapshots of data between longer observations. This image of the clashing triplet of galaxies in Arp 195 is one such snapshot. Extra observations such as these do more than provide spectacular images – they also help to identify promising targets to follow up with using telescopes such as the upcoming NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope.
Text credit: European Space Agency (ESA)
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Dalcanton
For more information: www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2021/hubble-spots-squa...
Galaxy Messier 51 (M51), also designated NGC 5194, is nicknamed the Whirlpool because of its prominent swirling structure. Its two curving arms, a hallmark of so-called grand-design spiral galaxies, are home to young stars, while its yellow core is where older stars reside.
Many spiral galaxies possess numerous, loosely shaped arms, which make their spiral structure less pronounced. These arms are star-formation factories, compressing hydrogen gas and creating clusters of new stars.
Some astronomers believe that the Whirlpool's arms are so prominent because of the effects of a close encounter with NGC 5195, the smaller, yellowish galaxy at the outermost tip of one of the Whirlpool's arms. At first glance, the compact galaxy appears to be tugging on the arm. Hubble's clear view, however, shows that NGC 5195 is passing behind the Whirlpool. The small galaxy has been gliding past M51 for hundreds of millions of years.
For more information, please visit: hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2005/news-2005-12.html
hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2011/news-2011-03.html
hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2001/news-2001-10.html
hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/1996/news-1996-17.html
Credit: NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith (STScI), and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Data taken from the Hubble Legacy Archive
Wide Field Camera 3
UV - 390nm - mapped to blue, exposure 9600 seconds
Blue - 475nm mapped to green, exposure 6400 seconds
Red - 600nm mapped to red, exposure 5200 seconds
The field of view is just over one arcminute.
I have combined the 3 greyscale images in PixInsight and Photoshop
Gravitationally interacting spiral galaxies - number 273 in the Arp catalogue of peculiar galaxies- clumps of young, hot blue stars glow intensely in UV in the uppermost spiral arm of UGC 1810.
The larger galaxy is UGC 1810 and the smaller UGC 1813.
Arp 278 is a pair of interacting spiral galaxies in the constellation Pegasus. This image is a small clip from a large image and is overprocessed to bring out some details in the galaxies. You can see several areas of bright knots of star formation throughout both galaxies. The pair are listed in the NGC catalog as NGC7253 and NGC7253A.
Observation data (J2000 epoch)
Constellation: Pegasus
Right ascension: 22h 19m 28.9s
Declination: 29° 23′ 30.0″
Distance: 203.7 Mly (62.46 Mpc) & 200.4 Mly (61.43 Mpc)
Apparent magnitude (V): 13.2 & 14.3
Apparent size (V): 1.7' x 0.8' & 1.6' x 0.5'
Tech Specs: Orion 8” RC Telescope, ZWO ASI2600MC camera running at 0F, 162 x 60 second exposures, Celestron CGEM-DX pier mounted, ZWO EAF and ASIAir Pro, processed in PixInsight. Image Date: September 13, 2024. Location: The Dark Side Observatory (W59), Weatherly, PA, USA (Bortle Class 4).
The Hubble Space Telescope captured this image of the interacting galaxy pair Arp 273, popularly called the “Rose.”
The larger of the spiral galaxies, known to astronomers as UGC 1810, has a disk that is distorted into a blossom-like shape by the gravitational tidal pull of the companion galaxy UGC 1813 (the Rose’s “stem”) below it. A swath of blue jewels across the top of UGC 1810 is the combined light from clusters of intensely bright and hot, young, blue stars. The galaxy’s outer arm — appearing as a partial ring — suggests that the smaller companion galaxy actually dived deep, but off-center, through UGC 1810.
The “stem” galaxy, UGC 1813, is oriented nearly edge-on to Earth and shows distinct signs of intense star formation at its nucleus, perhaps triggered by the encounter with UGC 1810.
This image was taken in celebration of Hubble's 21st anniversary in 2011.
For more information, visit: hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2011/news-2011-11.html
Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
It is now widely accepted among astronomers that an important aspect of how galaxies evolve is the way they interact with one another. Galaxies can merge, collide, or brush past one another — each of which has a significant impact on their shapes and structures. As common as these interactions are thought to be in the universe, it is rare to capture an image of two galaxies interacting in such a visibly dynamic way. This image from the Hubble Space Telescope feels incredibly three-dimensional for a piece of deep-space imagery. The subject of this image is Arp 282, an interacting galaxy pair that is composed of the Seyfert galaxy NGC 169 (bottom) and the galaxy IC 1559 (top).
Tidal interactions are occurring between NGC 169 and IC 1559. Tidal forces occur when an object’s gravity causes another object to distort or stretch. The direction of the tidal forces will be away from the lower-mass object and towards the higher mass object. When two galaxies interact, gas, dust and even entire solar systems will be drawn away from one galaxy towards the other by these tidal forces. This process can actually be seen in action in this image — delicate streams of matter have formed, visibly linking the two galaxies.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Dalcanton, Dark Energy Survey, DOE, FNAL/DECam, CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA, SDSS
Acknowledgement: J. Schmidt
For more information, visit: esahubble.org/images/potw2206a/
In this Hubble Space Telescope image, the galaxy NGC 2799 (on the left) is seemingly being pulled into the center of the galaxy NGC 2798 (on the right). These galaxies are interacting gravitationally and may eventually merge. Already, these two galaxies have seemingly formed a sideways feature resembling a waterspout, with stars from NGC 2799 appearing to fall into NGC 2798 almost like drops of water.
Galactic mergers can take place over several hundred million to over a billion years. While one might think the merger of two galaxies would be catastrophic for the stellar systems within, the sheer amount of space between stars means that stellar collisions are unlikely and stars typically drift past each other.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, SDSS, J. Dalcanton
Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt (Geckzilla)
For more information, visit: esahubble.org/images/potw2042a/
The two interacting galaxies making up the pair known as Arp-Madore 608-333 seem to float side by side in this image from the Hubble Space Telescope. Though they appear serene and unperturbed, the two are subtly warping one another through a mutual gravitational interaction that is disrupting and distorting both galaxies.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA, J. Dalcanton
For more information, visit: esahubble.org/images/potw2240a/
This striking image from the Hubble Space Telescope showcases Arp 298, a stunning pair of interacting galaxies. Arp 298 — which comprises the two galaxies NGC 7469 and IC 5283 — lies roughly 200 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Pegasus. The larger of the two galaxies pictured here is the barred spiral galaxy NGC 7469, and IC 5283 is its diminutive companion. NGC 7469 is also host to an active, supermassive black hole and a bright ring of star clusters. The “Arp” in this galaxy pair’s name signifies that they are listed in the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies compiled by the astronomer Halton Arp.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Evans, R. Chandar
For more information, visit: esahubble.org/images/potw2208a/
A head-on collision between two galaxies fueled the unusual triangular-shaped star-birthing frenzy, as captured this Hubble Space Telescope image. The interacting galaxy duo is collectively called Arp 143. The pair contains the glittery, distorted, star-forming spiral galaxy NGC 2445 at right, along with its less flashy companion, NGC 2444 at left.
Astronomers suggest that the galaxies passed through each other, igniting the uniquely shaped star-formation firestorm in NGC 2445, where thousands of stars are bursting to life on the right-hand side of the image. This galaxy is awash in starbirth because it is rich in gas, the fuel that makes stars. However, it hasn't yet escaped the gravitational clutches of its partner NGC 2444, shown on the left side of the image. The pair is waging a cosmic tug-of-war, which NGC 2444 appears to be winning. The galaxy has pulled gas from NGC 2445, forming the oddball triangle of newly minted stars.
Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI, Julianne Dalcanton (Center for Computational Astrophysics, Flatiron Inst. / UWashington);
Image processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)
For more information, visit: hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2022/news-2022-010
This image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows two of the galaxies in the galactic triplet Arp 248 — also known as Wild's Triplet — which lies around 200 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo. The two large spiral galaxies visible in this image — which flank a smaller, unrelated background spiral galaxy — seem to be connected by a luminous bridge. This elongated stream of stars and interstellar dust is known as a tidal tail, and it was formed by the mutual gravitational attraction of the two foreground galaxies.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA, J. Dalcanton
For more information, visit: esahubble.org/images/potw2244a/
The peculiar spiral galaxy ESO 415-19, which lies around 450 million light-years away, stretches lazily across this image from the Hubble Space Telescope. While the center of this object resembles a regular spiral galaxy, long streams of stars stretch out from the galactic core like bizarrely elongated spiral arms. These are tidal streams caused by some chance interaction in the galaxy’s past, and give ESO 415-19 a distinctly peculiar appearance.
ESO 415-19’s peculiarity made it a great target for Hubble. This observation comes from an ongoing campaign to explore the Arp Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, a menagerie of some of the weirdest and most wonderful galaxies that the universe has to offer.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Dalcanton, Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA
For more information, visit: esahubble.org/images/potw2252a/
A spectacular trio of merging galaxies in the constellation Boötes takes center stage in this image from the Hubble Space Telescope. These three galaxies are on a collision course and will eventually merge into a single larger galaxy, distorting one another’s spiral structure through mutual gravitational interaction in the process. An unrelated foreground galaxy appears to float serenely alongside the collision, and the smudged shapes of much more distant galaxies are visible in the background.
This colliding trio — known to astronomers as SDSSCGB 10189 — is a relatively rare combination of three large star-forming galaxies lying within only 50 000 light-years of one another. While that might sound like a safe distance, for galaxies this makes them extremely close neighbors!
This observation was designed to help astronomers understand the origin of the largest, most massive galaxies in the universe. These galactic behemoths are called Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCGs) and — as the name suggests — are defined as the brightest galaxies in any given galaxy cluster. Astronomers suspect that BCGs form through the merger of large, gas-rich galaxies like the ones in this image.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Sun
For more information, visit: esahubble.org/images/potw2307a/
These three galaxies, collectively known as NGC 7764A, were imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope. The two galaxies in the upper right of the image appear to be interacting with one another — indeed, the long trails of stars and gas extending from them both give the impression that they have both just been struck at great speed, thrown into disarray by the bowling-ball-shaped galaxy to the lower left of the image. In reality, however, interactions between galaxies happen over very long time periods, and galaxies rarely collide head-on with one another. It is also unclear whether the galaxy to the lower left is actually interacting with the other two, although they are so relatively close in space that it seems possible that they are. By happy coincidence, the collective interaction between these galaxies have caused the two on the upper right to form a shape, which from our Solar System's perspective, ressembles the starship known as the USS Enterprise from Star Trek!
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Dalcanton, Dark Energy Survey, DOE, FNAL, DECam, CTIO, NOIRLab/NSF/AURA, ESO
Acknowledgement: J. Schmidt
For more information, visit: esahubble.org/images/potw2204a/
Ring galaxies arise from a collision in which one galaxy plunges directly through the disk of another one. Seen here is galaxy AM 0644-741, located approximately 300 million light-years away in the southern constellation Volans. Its prominent ring is the result of a hit-and-run event by a celestial neighbor. The spiral galaxy visible to the left of AM 0644-741 is not the culprit, as it is actually a background galaxy that is not interacting with the ring galaxy at all. The true perpetrator has been identified by astronomers, but is outside the field of view of this image.
The gravitational shock imparted by a collision of this kind drastically changes the orbits of stars and gas in the "target" galaxy's disk, causing them to rush outward. As the ring plows outward into its surroundings, gas clouds collide and are compressed. The clouds can then contract under their own gravity, collapse, and form an abundance of new stars.
The rampant star formation explains why the ring here is so blue: It is continuously forming massive, young, hot stars, which are blue in color. Associated with them are the pink regions visible along the ring. These are rarefied clouds of glowing hydrogen gas, fluorescing because of the strong ultraviolet light from the newly formed massive stars.
This image was released to commemorate the 14th anniversary of Hubble's launch on April 24, 1990, and its deployment from the space shuttle Discovery on April 25, 1990.
For more information, visit: hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2004/news-2004-15.html
Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI);
Acknowledgment: J. Higdon (Cornell U.) and I. Jordan (STScI)
Edited Hubble Space Telescope image (I ran it through a haze reduction filter) of NGC 3314, two spiral galaxies that are visually overlapping from our perspective.
The Hubble Space Telescope photographed this peculiar system of galaxies known as Arp 194. This interacting group contains several galaxies, along with a "cosmic fountain" of stars, gas, and dust that stretches over 100,000 light-years.
The upper component of Arp 194 appears as a haphazard collection of dusty spiral arms, bright blue star-forming regions, and at least two galaxy nuclei that appear to be connected and in the early stages of merging. A third, relatively normal, spiral galaxy appears off to the right. The lower component of the galaxy group contains a single large spiral galaxy with its own blue star-forming regions.
However, the most striking feature of this galaxy group is the impressive blue stream of material extending from the northern component. This "fountain" contains complexes of super star clusters, each one of which may contain dozens of individual young star clusters. The blue color is produced by the hot, massive stars that dominate the light in each cluster. Overall, the "fountain" contains many millions of stars.
These young star clusters probably formed as a result of the interactions between the galaxies in the northern component of Arp 194. The compression of gas involved in galaxy interactions can enhance the star-formation rate and give rise to brilliant bursts of star formation in merging systems.
Hubble's resolution shows clearly that the stream of material lies in front of the southern component of Arp 194, as evidenced by the dust that is silhouetted around the star-cluster complexes. It is therefore not entirely clear whether the southern component actually interacts with the northern pair.
This image was taken in celebration of Hubble's 19th anniversary in 2009.
For more information, visit: hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2009/news-2009-18.html
Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Astronomy textbooks typically present galaxies as staid, solitary, and majestic island worlds of glittering stars.
But galaxies have close encounters that sometimes end in grand mergers and overflowing sites of new star birth as the colliding galaxies morph into wondrous new shapes.
Released in celebration of the Hubble Space Telescope's 18th launch anniversary, these views illustrate how galaxy collisions produce a remarkable variety of intricate structures.
Astronomers estimate that only one out of 1,000 galaxies in the nearby universe is in the act of colliding. However, galaxy mergers were much more common long ago when they were closer together, because the expanding universe was smaller. Astronomers study how gravity choreographs their motions in the game of celestial bumper cars and try to observe them in action.
For all their violence, galactic smash-ups take place at a glacial rate by human standards — timescales on the order of several hundred million years. The images in the Hubble atlas capture snapshots of the various merging galaxies at various stages in their collision.
For more information and additional colliding galaxies, visit: hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2008/news-2008-16.html
Credit: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration, and A. Evans (University of Virginia, Charlottesville/NRAO/Stony Brook University)
The galaxy merger Arp-Madore 417-391 steals the spotlight in this image from the Hubble Space Telescope. The Arp-Madore catalogue is a collection of particularly peculiar galaxies spread throughout the southern sky, and includes a collection of subtly interacting galaxies as well as more spectacular colliding galaxies. Arp-Madore 417-391, which lies around 670 million light-years away in the constellation Eridanus in the southern celestial hemisphere, is one such galactic collision. The two galaxies have been distorted by gravity and twisted into a colossal ring, leaving the cores of the two galaxies nestled side by side.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA, J. Dalcanton
For more information, visit: esahubble.org/images/potw2247a/
This is a Hubble Space Telescope snapshot of the early stages of a collision between two galaxies that resembles a Halloween carved pumpkin. The "pumpkin's" glowing "eyes" are the bright, star-filled cores of each galaxy that contain supermassive black holes. An arm of newly forming stars give the imaginary pumpkin a wry smirk. The two mostly featureless galaxies, cataloged as NGC 2292 and NGC 2293, are located about 80 million light-years away in the constellation Canis Major.
Credit: NASA, ESA, and W. Keel (University of Alabama)
For more information, visit: hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2020/news-2020-32
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Galaxy Images from NASA's newest James Webb Space Telescope revealed for the first time Cosmic Cliffs, the previously invisible areas of star birth in the Carina Nebula. The rapid phases of star formation are difficult to capture, but James Webb Space Telescope's extreme imaging capability can now capture these fascinating events.
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