3 days ago •
Arp 273: Battling Galaxies from Hubble
What's happening to these spiral galaxies? Although details remain uncertain, there sure seems to be a titanic battle going on. The upper galaxy is labelled UGC 1810 by itself, but together with its collisional partners is known as Arp 273. The overall shape of the UGC 1810 -- in particular its blue outer ring -- is likely a result of wild and violent gravitational interactions. The blue color of the outer ring at the top is caused by massive stars that are blue hot and have formed only in the past few million years. The inner part of the upper galaxy -- itself an older spiral galaxy -- appears redder and threaded with cool filamentary dust. A few bright stars appear well in the foreground, unrelated to colliding galaxies, while several far-distant galaxies are visible in the background. Arp 273 lies about 300 million light years away toward the constellation of Andromeda. Quite likely, UGC 1810 will devour its galactic sidekicks over the next billion years and settle into a classic spiral form.
Related content
Mercury in Silhouette The small, dark, round spot in this solar close up is planet Mercury. In the high resolution telescopic image, a colorized stac...
3 days ago
M16 and the Eagle Nebula A star cluster around 2 million years young surrounded by natal clouds of dust and glowing gas, M16 is also known as The Eag...
3 days ago
The Star Streams of NGC 5907 Grand tidal streams of stars seem to surround galaxy NGC 5907. The arcing structures form tenuous loops extending more t...
3 days ago
Young Stars in the Rho Ophiuchi Cloud How do stars form? To help find out, astronomers created this tantalizing false-color composition of dust clou...
3 days ago
Milky Way over Uruguayan Lighthouse Can a lighthouse illuminate a galaxy? No, but in the featured image, gaps in light emanating from the Jose Ignac...
3 days ago