Hubble Telescope reveals rare and fascinating views of six different colliding galaxies

Come on, let me tell you about birds, bees, and galaxies. Sometimes two galaxies face dire consequences, including a star mutation. NASA and the European Space Agency’s Hubble Space Telescope have given us six rare views of galaxy mergers, and each of them is a winner.

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

All galaxies are showing signs of their wild past. The European Space Agency describes NGC 3256 as a strange and distorted galaxy. NGC 3690 is a “supernova plant”, and the NGC 6052 image shows two galaxies still colliding.

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

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“The Milky Way galaxy typically forms star clusters with a mass 10,000 times the mass of our sun,” said the European Space Agency. “It is not comparable to the masses of star clusters that form when galaxies collide, which can reach millions of times the mass of our sun.”

HiPEEC researchers have found that large star clusters in compact galaxies remain extremely bright even after the colliding motion recedes. While the mergers can be dramatic for the galaxies in question, viewers on Earth can safely see the remarkable consequences through Hubble’s keen eyes.

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