Galaxy Details and Mergers - NASA Science

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Astronomer Edwin Hubble pioneered the study of galaxies based simply on their appearance and categorized them according to three basic shapes: spiral, elliptical, and irregular. Some 60 years later, the sharp vision of the space telescope named in his honor began seeing unprecedented details in galaxies, revealing intricate, dark dust lanes and glowing knots of star formation. Hubble observations showed galaxies often interact, that mergers are common, and that galaxies grow and evolve by merging.

The Antennae Galaxies, officially designated as NGC 4038 and NGC 4039, present a celestial ballet within the vast cosmic theater. Located approximately 68 million light-years away in the Corvus constellation, these interacting galaxies are entangled in a cosmic dance, their long tidal tails resembling the antennae of an insect, hence their name. In this video, Dr. Jennifer Wiseman explains this breathtaking image and how important Hubble is to exploring the mysteries of the universe. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center; Producer, Director & Editor: James Leigh

The Hubble telescope captured merging galaxies that look like a “Great Pumpkin,” a “Space Triangle,” “Antennae,” and “Mice.” For all their violence, galactic collisions take place at a snail’s pace – over timescales that span several hundred million years. Hubble captures a mere snapshot of these mergers.

Galaxy Collision Creates ‘Space Triangle’ in New Hubble Image

The collision of galaxies NGC 2445 (right) and NGC 2444 fueled a frenzy of star birth that produced this unusual triangle of young, blue stars.
NASA, ESA, STScI, Julianne Dalcanton (Center for Computational Astrophysics / Flatiron Inst. and University of Washington)
Hubble images of the “tadpole-like” Antennae and Mice galaxies reveal the gravitational turbulence these galaxies endure. The interacting duo called Arp 143 (the “Space Triangle”) holds a pair of distorted, star-forming spiral galaxies. Astronomers think the pair passed through each other, igniting a triangular firestorm of new stars.
Mergers like this preview the coming collision between our own Milky Way and the neighboring Andromeda galaxy 4 billion years from now.

Hubble Images of Galaxies with Tidal Tails

The Mice or NGC 4676, they will eventually merge into a single giant galaxy.
NASA, H. Ford (JHU), G. Illingworth (UCSC/LO), M. Clampin (STScI), G. Hartig (STScI), the ACS Science Team, and ESA

This computer simulation depicts the colliding galaxies that form “The Mice.”
Josh Barnes (University of Hawaii) and John Hibbard (National Radio Astronomy Observatory)

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Two galaxies one right one on the left. right galaxy has a blue-white triangular star forming region surrounding it.

Galaxy Collision Creates “Space Triangle” in new Hubble Image

A spectacular head-on collision between two galaxies fueled an unusual triangular-shaped star-birthing frenzy.

The majestic Sombrero galaxy (M104) is a bright enigma, a hybrid that conforms to neither a spiral nor elliptical structure. It's also alone in the sky, not embedded inside a cluster of other galaxies. How did it get this way? Astronomers used NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to investigate the history of this unusual galaxy, resolving tens of thousands of individual stars in the galaxy's vast halo, and measuring their metallicity — the presence of heavy elements — which can provide forensic clues to the galaxy's origin.

Sombrero Galaxy’s Halo Suggest Turbulent Past

Hubble’s sharpness and sensitivity resolved tens of thousands of individual stars in the Sombrero’s vast, extended halo, the region beyond a galaxy’s central portion, typically made of older stars.

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Hubble Reveals Stellar Fireworks Accompanying Galaxy Collisions

Hubble uncovered over 1,000 bright, young star clusters bursting to life in a brief, intense, brilliant “fireworks show” at the heart of a pair of colliding galaxies.

Hubble Science Highlights

Discover the breadth and depth of Hubble's exciting discoveries!

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Hubble image left to right: Jupiter, Uranus, Saturn, Neptune

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Hubble Ultra Deep Field image

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Computer simulation of a supermassive black hole at the core of a galaxy. Center is a black circle. Surrounding the black circle are arcs of red, blue, orange, and white. Further out from the circle are blotches of red, blue, orange, and white representing celestial objects.

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A field of galaxies along with the curved arcs of gravitationally lensed galaxies.

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Gravitational lenses are ‘Nature’s Boost’, expanding our view deeper into space and farther back in time.

A cluster of galaxies fills the frame. A purple glow around the largest concentrations of galaxies indicates the distribution of dark matter.

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