Posts Tagged ‘galaxy collision’
A tadpole swimming in a starry sea
Credit: NASA, H. Ford (JHU), G. Illingworth (UCSC/LO), M.Clampin (STScI), G. Hartig (STScI), the ACS Science Team, and ESA)
This tadpole, a galaxy called UGC 10214, has a tail made up of stars that’s 280,000 light years long. This odd spiral galaxy seems to be swimming through space. Long ago, the larger galaxy crashed with a smaller galaxy, seen above and to the left. The crash distorted and disrupted the Tadpole Galaxy leaving some stars behind.
Star Gull
NASA, J. English (U. Manitoba), S. Hunsberger, S. Zonak, J. Charlton, S. Gallagher (PSU), and L. Frattare (STScI)
Distorted galaxies make bent wings in this image of Seyfert’s Sextet. Six objects appear in this image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope but only four galaxies are interacting. The face-on spiral in the center of the image is a background galaxy five times farther away than the others.
Cosmic Sea Turtle
Credit: NASA & ESA
A cosmic sea turtle, lobster or butterfly dives into a cosmic sea in this NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of NGC 6240. This peculiar image shows the collision of two smaller galaxies. While called collisions, these galaxies are merging together. Gas and dust bump together to form new stars. Existing stars themselves are not really disrupted by the merger. After several million years the stars will settle into new orbits around a new galactic center. Observations from NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory show two giant black holes, the centers of the two galaxies, closing in on each other. Right now, they are only about 3,000 light years apart. Eventually they will merge into a single black hole and become the center of the new galaxy that is forming.
Grand Galaxy
Credit: NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Here on Earth, we have a perfect seat to look on at the sweeping, grand design of spiral galaxy M81.
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The ancient peoples saw pictures in the sky. From those patterns in the heavens, ancient storytellers created legends about heroes, maidens, dragons, bears, centaurs, dogs and mythical creatures…Read More
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By The Riviera Times
By CritterKeeper
By Sarah Q. Brett