Six incredible photos of colliding galaxies

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As part of its celebration of a New Year, the NASA / ESA Hubble Space Telescope has released six different galaxy mergers. These rare astronomical phenomena were captured as part of a recent survey to study the rate of new star formations.

As part of the publication, NASA / ESA explains that these rare fusion events show galaxies undergoing dramatic changes in their appearance and stellar content.

“These systems are excellent laboratories for tracking the formation of star clusters under extreme physical conditions,” the organization writes. “The Milky Way typically forms star clusters with masses 10,000 times the mass of our Sun. It doesn’t compare to the masses of star clusters that form in colliding galaxies, which can be millions of times the mass of our Sun.

The galaxy depicted in this Hubble Image of the Week has a particularly evocative name: the Medusa Fusion, and is located approximately 130 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major (The Big Dipper).
This system is made up of a pair of galaxies, dubbed IC 694 and NGC 3690, which passed close through about 700 million years ago. As a result of this interaction, the system underwent a fierce star-forming explosion. In the past fifteen years or so, six supernovae have appeared in the far reaches of the galaxy, making this system a distinguished supernova factory.

These events give off a lot of light, and even after the collision, when the resulting galactic system dissipates into a calmer state, the massive star clusters will continue to glow.

This image shows the particular galaxy NGC 3256. The galaxy is approximately 100 million light years from Earth and is the result of past galactic fusion, which created its distorted appearance. As such, NGC 3256 provides an ideal target for studying stars that have been triggered by galaxy mergers.

These images are a selection of six out of a group of 59 that were released as early as 2008 and as recently as October 2020.

The NGC 1614 galaxy system has a bright optical center and two clear inner spiral arms that are quite symmetrical.
Located in the constellation of Hercules, about 230 million light years away, NGC 6052 is a pair of colliding galaxies.

“By studying the six galaxy mergers presented here, the Hubble Imaging Probe of Extreme Environments and Clusters (HiPEEC) survey investigated how star clusters are affected in collisions by rapid changes that dramatically increase the rate at which new stars are forming in these galaxies. Writes NASA / ESA.

“Hubble’s capabilities made it possible to resolve large star-forming ‘nodes’ into many young, compact star clusters. Hubble’s ultraviolet and near infrared observations from these systems were used to derive the ages, masses and extinctions of star clusters and to analyze the rate of star formation in these six molten galaxies. The HiPEEC study reveals that populations of star clusters undergo large and rapid variations in their properties, with the most massive clusters being formed towards the end of the fusion phase.

NGC 34 is found in the constellation Cetus (the sea monster). The outer region of the galaxy appears almost translucent, punctuated with stars and strange wispy tendrils.

(via Mashable)

Image credits: Photos courtesy of ESA / Hubble, NASA



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