Hum Posted April 27, 2006 Share Posted April 27, 2006 (edited) These shape-shifting galaxies have taken on the form of a giant mask. The icy blue eyes are actually the cores of two merging galaxies, called NGC 2207 and IC 2163, and the mask is their spiral arms. The false-colored image consists of infrared data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope (red) and visible data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (blue/green). NGC 2207 and IC 2163 met and began a sort of gravitational tango about 40 million years ago. The two galaxies are tugging at each other, stimulating new stars to form. Eventually, this cosmic ball will come to an end, when the galaxies meld into one. The dancing duo is located 140 million light-years away in the Canis Major constellation. The infrared data from Spitzer highlight the galaxies' dusty regions, while the visible data from Hubble indicates starlight. In the Hubble-only image (not pictured here), the dusty regions appear as dark lanes. The Hubble data correspond to light with wavelengths of .44 and .55 microns (blue and green, respectively). The Spitzer data represent light of 8 microns. A bright spot on the image's left edge is thought to harbor a black hole. source hi-rez photo Edited April 27, 2006 by Hum Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain_Wang Posted April 27, 2006 Share Posted April 27, 2006 Sweet, looks incredibly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hum Posted April 28, 2006 Author Share Posted April 28, 2006 I wonder how they know the two galaxies are merging. Maybe the smaller one is just several lightyears 'behind' the larger galaxy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Decryptor Veteran Posted April 28, 2006 Veteran Share Posted April 28, 2006 I wonder how they know the two galaxies are merging. Maybe the smaller one is just several lightyears 'behind' the larger galaxy. The red, it's dust heating up (normally it's dark, and "cool", not glowing hot in infra-red) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
comk Posted April 28, 2006 Share Posted April 28, 2006 Both galaxies are also interacting with each other as can be seen that their spiral arms are being extended by the black hole in the middle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Decryptor Veteran Posted April 28, 2006 Veteran Share Posted April 28, 2006 I have probably done this completely wrong, but hey. This is the first image, but only with the red (Infra-red) details. Looks nice, ehh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain_Wang Posted April 28, 2006 Share Posted April 28, 2006 Looks like an old fashioned moustache. I wonder if nasa said that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wheazel Posted April 28, 2006 Share Posted April 28, 2006 Looks like an old fashioned moustache. I wonder if nasa said that. Looks more like the face of a demon watching over us. Nice picture ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrStoo Posted April 29, 2006 Share Posted April 29, 2006 All i can say is that looks amazing, i wonder what it's like after it's collided. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vincent Posted April 29, 2006 Share Posted April 29, 2006 All i can say is that looks amazing, i wonder what it's like after it's collided. Most spirals that merge end up as elliptical galaxies, these mergers do cause a significant loss in stars as they are blown off by gravitional forces.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pox Posted April 29, 2006 Share Posted April 29, 2006 hmmm... interesting. think about how small stars are compared to the gaps between them... the odds of even two stars colliding in a situation like this are tiny... it's really only the gravitational effects that would make them interact. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hum Posted April 29, 2006 Author Share Posted April 29, 2006 Looks nice, ehh? Definitely the gaze of Satan ! LOL :rofl: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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