Seyferts Sextet
Explanation:
What will survive this battle of the galaxies?
Known as
Seyfert's Sextet,
this intriguing group of galaxies lies in the head portion of
the split constellation of the Snake
(
Serpens).
The
sextet actually contains only four interacting galaxies, though.
Near the center of
this Hubble Space Telescope picture, the small
face-on spiral galaxy
lies in the distant background and appears only by chance aligned with
the main group.
Also, the prominent condensation
on the upper left is likely not a separate galaxy at all,
but a
tidal tail
of stars flung out by the galaxies' gravitational
interactions.
About 190 million
light-years away, the interacting galaxies are
tightly packed into a region around 100,000 light-years across,
comparable to the size of our own
Milky Way galaxy, making this
one of the densest known
galaxy groups.
Bound by gravity, the
close-knit group
may coalesce into a
single large galaxy
over the next few billion
years.
Free lecture:
APOD editor to speak in NYC on Jan. 3
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.
