Hubble captures the images of a galactic "hit and run"

FINAL FRONTIER – About 30 million light-years from Earth, two galaxies met in an epic collision, and the magnificent fallout was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope.

The collision was more like an accidental collision between two neighboring galaxies, NGC 4485 and NGC 4490, found in the hunting dog constellation. Given the distance to these galaxies, the collision was not captured in real time. It happened millions of years ago, but we are seeing it now.

NGC 4490, a spiral galaxy with a central bar structure composed of stars, is the largest galactic neighbor of NGC 4485, an irregular galaxy with no definite shape. The spiral galaxy was crossing the irregular galaxy when the collision occurred. The gravity of the largest galaxy deformed the structure of gases, dust, and stars in NGC 4485.

Now, the galaxies are moving away from each other and the gravitational force that separates them distorts their shape. There is a flux of stars and gases 25,000 light-years between the two galaxies.

But rather than being destructive, the violent encounter encouraged the formation of new stars.

In the image captured by Hubble, the right side of the NGC 4485 is lit by the birth of blue stars and pink nebulae that signify the stars as "convent". On the left are the remains of its structure that normally evolved before the collision.

Bottom right, a hint of the NGC 4490 on the run.

These blue stars have a short life span, quickly burning their fuel and exploding. But these explosions also release material and heavy elements in space, which leads to the creation of new stars.

These collisions were common in the early universe when it was smaller and the galaxies were closer to each other, sweeping and bumping into each other.

This image, along with the other unique views of our galaxy captured by Hubble, illuminate the galactic evolution.