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A stunning Hubble Space Telescope image of three galaxies tearing apart gave astronomers a first glimpse of the Milky Way comes out.
Located 389 Light years far from Earth in the constellation Lynx, Arp 195 is a cluster of galaxies made up of three galaxies that tear apart in a three-way gravitational tug-of-war. It’s a fate that astronomers say will befall the Milky Way when, in 4.5 billion years, it is expected to collide with the nearby Andromeda galaxy, according to one. evaluation by the European Space Agency.
The image was captured just two weeks after a five-week hiatus in the operation of the 31-year-old space telescope. In June, NASA lost control over Hubble following an issue that left its payload computer unusable, but it is now back in action after a switch to backup hardware in July.
Related: The 15 strangest galaxies in our universe
NASA says it captured the image of the three “bickering galactic siblings” long after they were trapped by each other’s gravitational pull. The three galaxies are now spiraling in ever-closer orbits, colliding and pulling threads of matter as they do.
Now that the galaxies are in orbit tightly around each other, the larger one is able to use its more powerful gravity to trap matter from its smaller rivals, creating a trail of dust, gas and stars between them. that can be seen in the picture. .
Eventually the galaxies will merge into one. Despite the apocalypse it gives, there is so much space between stars inside galaxies that the stars are very unlikely to collide with each other. In fact, the addition of additional material brought in by the merger is expected to increase the number of stars born in the newly unified galaxy.
The same fate awaits our galactic home, the Milky Way, when it finally merges with Andromeda – relatively few stars will collide and our solar system will likely survive largely unscathed, although it may be thrown down a different path. around the center of the new galaxy.
The future fusion between the Milky Way and Andromeda will not be the first time that our galaxy has collided with another. The Milky Way is believed to have engulfed at least a dozen galaxies over the past 12 billion years – including a collision called Gaia sausage fusion – adding the stolen stars to an ever-growing galactic okra, Live Science previously reported. .
Originally posted on Live Science.
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