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Explanation: Astronomers turn detectives when trying to figure out the cause of unusual sites like NGC 1316. A preliminary inspection indicates that NGC 1316 is an enormous elliptical galaxy that started devouring a smaller spiral galaxy neighbor about 100 million years ago. Supporting evidence includes the dark dust lanes uniquely indicative of a spiral. What remains unexplained are the unusually small globular star clusters, visible as faint dots on the above photograph. Most elliptical galaxies have more and brighter globular clusters than evident in NGC 1316. Yet the observed globulars are too old to have been created by the recent spiral collision. One hypothesis therefore holds that these globulars survive from an even earlier galaxy that was subsumed into NGC 1316.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
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 1316
Publications with words: colliding galaxies - NGC 1316
See also:
- APOD: 2024 July 30 Á Arp 142: Interacting Galaxies from Webb
- APOD: 2023 September 25 Á Arp 142: The Hummingbird Galaxy
- APOD: 2023 January 23 Á The Colliding Spiral Galaxies of Arp 274
- Galaxy Wars: M81 and M82
- NGC 1316: After Galaxies Collide
- NGC 4676: When Mice Collide
- NGC 520: Colliding Galaxies from Hubble