Astronomy Picture of the Day - Colliding Spiral Galaxies from Webb and Hubble

NASA ^ | 6 Jan, 2025 | Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

[MtnClimber]

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. The featured image in scientifically assigned colors is a composite of Hubble exposures in visible light and Webb exposures in infrared light. Astronomers predict that NGC 2207, the larger galaxy on the right, will eventually incorporate IC 2163, the smaller galaxy on the left. 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 space between stars is so vast that when galaxies collide, the stars in them usually do not collide.

[MtnClimber]

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For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.

[MtnClimber]

[MtnClimber]

Pinging the APOD list

🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔

[BenLurkin]

Should be called the Phantom of the Opera galaxy.

[MtnClimber]

I wonder if this is how elliptical galaxies are formed.

[Red Badger]

What if they are not colliding but just passing in front of one another?..............

[Red Badger]

[MtnClimber]

What if it is a road rage incident between a VW Beetle galaxy and a Ford F350 galaxy?

[Red Badger]

Then Newtonian Physics takes effect...The one with the largest MASS WINS!..............

[grey_whiskers]

(Thunderous applause!)

[Larry Lucido]

I hope so. Spiral galaxies are impossible to untangle.

[Telepathic Intruder]

It is in fact. Giant ellipticals are the result of merging large spirals. And large spirals are thought to be the result of merging dwarf spirals and ellipticals, and least until JWST came along and started messing up all the theories.

[Red Badger]

[Red Badger]

[Red Badger]

[Red Badger]

[MtnClimber]

I consulted briefly on the JWST on an issue they had, but don’t blame these collisions on me.

[Berosus]

When I read the title of this thread, I first thought it said “Webster Hubble,” not “Webb and Hubble.” (LOL)

[MtnClimber]

When I read the title of this thread, I first thought it said “Webster Hubble,” not “Webb and Hubble.” (LOL)

Or, how was the Chelsea galaxy formed?

[buckalfa]

"What if it is a road rage incident between a VW Beetle galaxy and a Ford F350 galaxy"

I am certain the aggrieved galaxy can call the Galactic offices of George Sink at all 9's.