Free Republic 3rd Qtr 2024 Fundraising Target: $81,000 Receipts & Pledges to-date: $68,305
84%  
Woo hoo!! And we're now over 84%!! Thank you all very much!! God bless.

Keyword: ic2163

Brevity: Headers | « Text »
  • Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Spiral Galaxies in Collision

    01/19/2014 10:41:35 AM PST · by SunkenCiv · 9 replies
    NASA ^ | January 19, 2014 | (see photo credit)
    Explanation: Billions of years from now, only one of these two galaxies will remain. Until then, spiral galaxies NGC 2207 and IC 2163 will slowly pull each other apart, creating tides of matter, sheets of shocked gas, lanes of dark dust, bursts of star formation, and streams of cast-away stars. Astronomers predict that NGC 2207, the larger galaxy on the left, will eventually incorporate IC 2163, the smaller galaxy on the right. In the most recent encounter that about peaked 40 million years ago, the smaller galaxy is swinging around counter-clockwise, and is now slightly behind the larger galaxy. The...