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Credit & Copyright: ESA/Hubble,
NASA,
Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA,
J. Dalcanton
Explanation:
How many galaxies are interacting here?
This grouping of galaxies is called the
Wild Triplet, not only for the
discoverer, but for the number of bright galaxies that appear.
It had been assumed that all three galaxies,
collectively cataloged as
Arp 248, are
interacting,
but more
recent investigations reveal that only the
brightest two galaxies are sparring gravitationally:
the big galaxies at the top and bottom.
The spiral galaxy in the middle of the
featured image by the
Hubble Space Telescope is actually far in the distance,
as is the galaxy just below it and all of the other
numerous galaxies in the field.
A striking result of these
giants jousting is a tremendous
bridge of stars, gas, and
dust that stretches between them -- a bridge almost 200,000
light-years long.
Light we see today from Wild's Triplet left about
200 million years ago, when
dinosaurs roamed the Earth.
In perhaps a billion years or so, the
two interacting galaxies will merge to form a
single large spiral galaxy.
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Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: interacting galaxies
Publications with words: interacting galaxies
See also: