1 of 5000

|

women's t-shirts interstellar women's t-shirts space women's t-shirts galaxy women's t-shirts galaxies women's t-shirts star women's t-shirts star formation women's t-shirts stellar wind women's t-shirts radiation women's t-shirts nebula women's t-shirts nebulae women's t-shirts space exploration women's t-shirts hubble space telescope women's t-shirts science women's t-shirts astronomy women's t-shirts astronomical women's t-shirts

photographs interstellar photos space photos galaxy photos galaxies photos star photos star formation photos stellar wind photos radiation photos nebula photos nebulae photos space exploration photos hubble space telescope photos science photos astronomy photos astronomical photos

Add This Artwork to Your Favorites Collection

Comment

Add This Artwork to Your Favorites Collection

Comment

In this Hubble image, the immense gravitational pull of two spiral galaxies cause them to collide. The structures of both objects are slowly distorted to resemble new forms, and in some cases, merge together to form new, super galaxies. This particular fate is similar to that of the Milky Way Galaxy, when it will ultimately merge with our closest galactic partner, the Andromeda Galaxy. Not all interacting galaxies result in mergers though. The merger is dependent on the mass of each galaxy, as well as the relative velocities of each body. It is quite possible that the event pictured here, romantically named 2MASX J06094582-2140234, will avoid a merger event altogether, and will merely distort the arms of each spiral without colliding. These galactic interactions also trigger new regions of star formation in the galaxies involved, causing them to be extremely luminous in the infrared part of the spectrum. For this reason, these types of galaxies are referred to as LIRGs, or Luminous Inf...