Today’s space pics: ‘Galaxies gone wild’ - April 24, 2008
Under the slightly risqué headline ‘Galaxies gone wild!’ the Hubble Space Telescope team has released a series of images of hot galaxy merging action.
In total 59 candid snaps of colliding galaxies have been released, most of which are products of the GOALS project, combining data from the Spitzer, Hubble, Chandra and GALEX instruments.
More of our favourites from the 59 below the fold. Click on images for description.
Arp 256
NGC 6050
CGCG436-030
Images: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration and A. Evans (University of Virginia, Charlottesville/NRAO/Stony Brook University)
Comments
I especially like the ones that are visibly interacting but have markedly different redshifts.
Posted by: Nathan Myers | April 24, 2008 11:47 PM
Could I please have a detailed description of what's happening in the third image from the top (GGW3.jpg)?
[From ESA:
Arp 272 is a remarkable collision between two spiral galaxies, NGC 6050 and IC 1179, and is part of the Hercules Galaxy Cluster, located in the constellation of Hercules. The galaxy cluster is part of the Great Wall of clusters and superclusters, the largest known structure in the Universe. The two spiral galaxies are linked by their swirling arms. Arp 272 is located some 450 million light-years away from Earth and is the number 272 in Arp’s Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies.
http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/html/heic0810ap.html
Ed.]
Posted by: Priyoneel Basu | April 28, 2008 12:25 PM
Thank you for the details. At the link of NGC 6050 and IC 1179, I see a smaller spiral. could you please comment on that, and the basic physics of how this phenomenon may have formed?
Posted by: Priyoneel Basu | April 29, 2008 06:46 AM
Sorry, one and all, but these are not galaxies merging or colliding. Quite to the opposite - they are nascent galaxies emerging by fragmentation! Little wonder physics today has got things in reverse. Get the entire picture starting with (1).
For a one-page summary, please see (2). Concept of a crank? Perhaps; but first see also (3) and get your university physics department head to accept my upfront $25,000 (minimum); refute the model to his or her satisfaction alone; and the money is all yours with my thanks for waking me up to reality! No joke; no scam; just an earnest appeal here to mainstream peers to resolve this matter for me early with your profound knowledge and expertise. Thanks again.
(1) www.sittampalam.net/StarFormation.htm
(2) www.sittampalam.net/Summary.pdf
(3) www.sittampalam.net/LateralThoughts.pdf
Posted by: Eugene Sittampalam | April 30, 2008 06:42 PM
I, too, would like an expert comment on that small galaxy between the two larger galaxies making up NGC 6050. The smallest galaxy seems to have a substantial core, maybe larger than the core of the galaxy on the right, but it appears to have no star formation. I had been thinking that maybe this small galaxy formed when gas from the two colliding galaxies met and concentrated at this point, but that is hard to reconcile with the massive-looking core and the lack of star formation. Comments, please?
Posted by: Ann Sidbrant | May 2, 2008 07:17 PM
Can u send me such pics of galaxies regullarly as i have to do a small reserch work on it.Do u know about worm wholes.
Posted by: Ritz | April 10, 2009 10:04 PM