[ad_1]
Two galaxies are caught in a crazy cosmic dance, shooting at each other in a new image from a space telescope icon.
Their mutual gravitational attraction brings galaxies closer and closer in this view of the The Hubble Space Telescope published on August 13th. The idle collision of a galaxy, dubbed UGC 2369 by scientists, lies about 424 million light-years away. (A light year is the distance traveled by light over a year, or about 10 billion kilometers).
The two collections of stars, gas and dust are so close to each other that a weak material bridge overlaps the intergalactic moat. This material comes from the "growing division" between the two galaxies, the European Space Agency said in a statement.
Related: When galaxies meet: photos of large galactic crashes
"Interaction with others is a common occurrence in the history of most galaxies," said ESA. "For large galaxies such as the Milky Way, the majority of these interactions involve much smaller" dwarf galaxies. "But every few billion years, a larger event can occur."
Our Milky Way, for example, is on an inevitable collision course with the neighboring giant galaxy – Andromeda. Individual star systems like ours are likely to be largely undisturbed, but remote observers will see both galaxies gradually become one in four billion years. ESA nicknamed this new fused galaxy "Milkomeda".
Hubble has captured galaxies all over the sky during its nearly 30 years of operations. Some of his most famous galactic images date back to a time shortly after the Big Bang that formed our universe 13.8 billion years ago. The latest image of this type, Ultra Deep Field, was generated in 2016.
Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
[ad_2]
Source link