NASA captures breathtaking image of two Galaxies smashing
The battle was first discovered in 1784 by the astronomer William Herschel.
(Web Desk) – The Hubble Space Telescope captured two star systems on the brink of becoming one, and it was a dazzling solar system sight. Astoundingly, 230 million light years away, a fierce and drawn-out battle between two galaxies is finally coming to an end within the constellation of Hercules.
In the image, the Hubble Space Telescope zoomed in on NGC 6052, a pair of extremely bright, colliding galaxies, according to an ESA/NASA press release. The NGC 6052 image was taken with the Wide Field Camera 3 on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.
A pair of colliding galaxies, pulled together by gravity, are at last laying down their arms and joining forces.
When this mighty battle was first discovered in 1784 by the astronomer William Herschel, he thought it was just one large galaxy with an abnormally round shape.
Today, we know that NGC 6052 is actually two individuals in the late stages of merging, so tightly packed that their distinct galactic edges have faded. As the two grow closer and closer, the individual stars in each will be thrown out of their original orbits and placed onto entirely new paths.
#HubbleFriday Long ago gravity drew these 2 galaxies together. However, actual collisions between stars are very rare as stars are very small relative to the distances between them. Eventually the galaxies will fully merge to form a single, stable galaxy: https://t.co/PwHvlSoEW1 pic.twitter.com/5PUcXp7BCL
— Hubble (@NASAHubble) March 8, 2019
This might sound like a disaster writ large, but because galaxies are mostly empty space, actual collisions between stars are few and far between.
"Since the stars produce the light we see, the "galaxy" now appears to have a highly chaotic shape," explains the European Space Agency.
"Eventually, this new galaxy will settle down into a stable shape, which may not resemble either of the two original galaxies."
Our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is doomed to one day experience a similar fate with our next-door-neighbour, the Andromeda galaxy. But thankfully, our collision is not so imminent. Scientists say we have at least another four billion years.
Plenty of time left to continue studying hot spots like NGC 6052, unwrapping the secrets of a galaxy’s circle of life.
The image was taken by NASA’s Hubble with its old Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2).
