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Friday, April 25, 2008

When Galaxies Collide

Stuff blows up real good!

Not as good as when the aliens from Independence Day blow up the White House, maybe, but excellent nevertheless. My fave from the Hubble Telescope's gallery is probably this one

This pair of spiral galaxies features a larger nearly face-on galaxy and its smaller, highly tilted partner. Tidal interaction from the smaller companion has clearly deformed one arm of the larger galaxy. The pair is surrounded by the glow of faintly shining stars and interstellar matter that has been smeared through space by the gravitational effects of the collision and the pull of a third nearby galaxy.

1 comment:

  1. now that's real magic. Gorgeous like buttah!

    ReplyDelete