This stunning view of a pair of spiral galaxies called Arp 72 is a violent collision occurring in slow motion, according to the Hubble team.
This image shows Arp 72, a galaxy pair that includes NGC 5996 (a large spiral galaxy) and NGC 5994 (a small companion star in the lower left of the image). The color images were taken in the visible and infrared regions of the spectrum using Hubble's Altitude Survey Camera (ACS) and the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) mounted on NSF's Victor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope. created from separate exposures. Cerro Toloro Interamerican Observatory in Chile. Four filters were used to sample different wavelengths. Color is obtained by assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credits: NASA / ESA / Hubble / L. Galvany / J. Dalcanton / Dark Energy Survey / DOE / FNAL / DECam / CTIO / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA.
of alp 72 system It is located approximately 160 million light years away in the constellation Serpens.
Arp 72 is made up of a strangely shaped spiral galaxy NGC 5996 and smaller, less deformed spiral galaxies NGC5994.
NGC 5996 was first discovered on March 21, 1784 by German-British astronomer William Herschel.
NGC 5994 is discovered Written by Irish engineer and astronomer Bindon Stoney on March 9, 1851.
“The centers of these galaxies are approximately 67,000 light-years apart from each other,” the Hubble astronomers said.
“Furthermore, the distance between galaxies at their closest points is even smaller, close to 40,000 light-years.”
“This may still sound vast, but from a galactic separation perspective, it's really, really cozy!”
“For comparison, the distance between the Milky Way and its closest independent galactic neighbor Andromeda is about 2.5 million light-years.”
“Alternatively, the distance between the Milky Way and its largest and brightest satellite galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud, is about 162,000 light-years.”
“Given this and the fact that NGC 5996 is roughly comparable in size to the Milky Way, it is not surprising that NGC 5996 and NGC 5994 are interacting,” the researchers said.
“In fact, this interaction may be responsible for distorting the helical shape of NGC 5996 and apparently pulling it toward NGC 5994.”
“That's also… Formation of very long and faint tails of stars and gas It curves away from NGC 5996 to the upper right of the image. ”
“This tidal tail is a common phenomenon that appears when galaxies approach each other, as seen in some Hubble images.”
Source: www.sci.news
