File:NGC 1487 HST.jpg

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Summary

Description
English: This image, taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows a peculiar galaxy known as NGC 1487, lying about 30 million light-years away in the southern constellation of Eridanus.

Rather than viewing a celestial object, it is actually better to think of this as an event. Here, we are witnessing two or more galaxies in the act of merging together to form a single new galaxy. Each progenitor has lost almost all traces of its original appearance, as stars and gas have been thrown hither and thither by gravity in an elaborate cosmic whirl.

Unless one is very much bigger than the other, galaxies are always disrupted by the violence of the merging process. As a result, it is very difficult to determine precisely what the original galaxies looked like and, indeed, how many of them there were. In this case, it is possible that we are seeing the merger of several dwarf galaxies that were previously clumped together in a small group.

Although older yellow and red stars can be seen in the outer regions of the new galaxy, its appearance is dominated by large areas of bright blue stars, illuminating the patches of gas that gave them life. This burst of star formation may well have been triggered by the merger.
Date
Source http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1605a/
Author

ESA/Hubble & NASA

Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt (Geckzilla)

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This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
Attribution: ESA/Hubble
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1 February 2016

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current11:36, 1 February 2016Thumbnail for version as of 11:36, 1 February 20161,280 × 1,049 (292 KB)JmencisomUser created page with UploadWizard
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