Galaxies Away
Explanation:
This striking pair of galaxies is far, far away ...
about 350 million light-years
from Earth.
Cataloged
as AM0500-620, the pair is located in the southern
constellation Dorado.
The background elliptical and foreground
spiral galaxy are representative of two of the
three major classes of galaxies which
inhabit our Universe.
Within the disks
of spiral galaxies, like our own
Milky Way,
gas, dust, and young blue star clusters trace out
grand spiral "arms".
The dust lanes
along the arms of this particular
spiral stand out dramatically in this Hubble Space Telescope
image as they obligingly sweep
in front of the background elliptical.
Like the central bulges of spiral galaxies,
elliptical galaxies
tend toward spherical shapes resulting from
more random motions of their stars.
But while spirals produce new stars, star formation in
ellipticals which lack gas and dust seems to have stopped.
How do galaxies evolve with
cosmic time?
Evidence is growing that
graceful galaxy shapes can hide
a violent history.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
