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Credit & Copyright: Bruce Waddington
Explanation:
These
two mighty galaxies are pulling each other apart.
Known as The Mice because they have such long tails, each large
spiral galaxy has actually passed through the other.
Their long
tails are drawn out by strong
gravitational tides rather than collisions of their
individual stars.
Because the distances are so large, the
cosmic
interaction takes place in slow motion --
over hundreds of millions of years.
They will probably
collide again and again
over the next billion years until they coalesce to
form a single galaxy.
NGC 4676 lies about 300 million
light-years away toward the constellation of Bernice's Hair
(Coma Berenices)
and are
likely
members
of the Coma Cluster of Galaxies.
Not often imaged in small telescopes,
this wide field of view
catches the faint tidal tails several hundred thousand
light-years long.
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NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: colliding galaxies - NGC 4676
Publications with words: colliding galaxies - NGC 4676
See also: