Galactic Creatures at Play

Esahubble_potw1931a_1024

esahubble_potw1931a August 5th, 2019

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Evans

The pair of strange, luminescent creatures at play in this image are actually galaxies realms of millions upon millions of stars. This galactic duo is known as UGC 2369. The galaxies are interacting, meaning that their mutual gravitational attraction is pulling them closer and closer together and distorting their shapes in the process. A tenuous bridge of gas, dust, and stars can be seen connecting the two galaxies,, during which they pulled material out into space across the diminishing divide between them. Interaction with others is a common event in the history of most galaxies. For larger galaxies like the Milky Way, the majority of these interactions involve significantly smaller so-called dwarf galaxies. But every few aeons, a more momentous event can occur. For our home galaxy, the next big event will take place in about four billion years, when it will collide with its bigger neighbour, the Andromeda Galaxy. Over time, the two galaxies will likely merge into one already nicknamed Milkomeda.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1931a/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, None, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
UGC 2369
Subject - Distant Universe
Galaxy > Type > Interacting
Esahubble_potw1931a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 2h 54m 2.2s
DEC = 14° 58’ 27.0”
Orientation
North is 107.2° CCW
Field of View
2.8 x 1.9 arcminutes
Constellation
Aries

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Cyan Hubble (ACS) Optical (B) 435.0 nm
Orange Hubble (ACS) Optical (I) 814.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Cyan
Orange
Esahubble_potw1931a_1280
×
ID
potw1931a
Subject Category
D.5.1.7  
Subject Name
UGC 2369
Credits
ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Evans
Release Date
2019-08-05T06:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1931a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
ACS, ACS
Color Assignment
Cyan, Orange
Band
Optical, Optical
Bandpass
B, I
Central Wavelength
435, 814
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
None, None
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
43.5090142526, 14.9741613569
Reference Dimension
3392.0, 2291.0
Reference Pixel
1696.0, 1145.5
Scale
-1.38947636356e-05, 1.38947636356e-05
Rotation
107.19999999999997
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
ESA/Hubble
URL
http://www.spacetelescope.org
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
City
Garching bei München
State/Province
None
Postal Code
D-85748
Country
Germany
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
ESA/Hubble
Publisher ID
esahubble
Resource ID
potw1931a
Metadata Date
2019-07-24T09:59:22+02:00
Metadata Version
1.1
×

 

Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

×

There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

Providers | Sign In