Hubble telescope offers magnificent views of six different colliding galaxies

Come together and let me tell you about the birds and the bees – and the galaxies. Sometimes two galaxies meet with dramatic consequences, including a baby boom of stars. NASA and the European Space Agency’s Hubble Space Telescope gave us six rare views of galaxy mergers, and each of them is a winner.

ESA released the images to celebrate the start of 2021. “These systems are excellent laboratories for tracking star cluster formation under extreme physical conditions,” the agency said in a statement Thursday. Star clusters are exactly what they look like: groups of stars.

The galaxies are all showing signs of their wild past. ESA describes the galaxy NGC 3256 as being peculiar and distorted. NGC 3690 is a “supernova factory”, and the NGC 6052 image shows two galaxies still colliding.

The HiPEEC (Hubble Imaging Probe of Extreme Environments and Clusters) survey that provided the images focused on star clusters inside galaxies and what happens to them when their host systems merge. Collisions fuel the formation of new stars, increasing the stellar birth rate.

“The Milky Way typically forms star clusters with masses 10,000 times the mass of our sun,” ESA said. “It doesn’t compare to the masses of star clusters that form in colliding galaxies, which can reach millions of times the mass of our sun.”

HiPEEC researchers have found that large star clusters in merged galaxies remain very bright even after the collision action has subsided. While the mergers can be dramatic for the galaxies involved, viewers on Earth can safely see the beautiful consequences thanks to Hubble’s keen eyes.