681 million light years from home something spectacular has been portrayed by the Hubble Space Telescope, it is not just one, but three galaxies and the colossal tear of a collision. Three galaxies that will become one, what is known as a triple merger.
These events are unique to us, but across the universe they are actually more common than they seem. The Milky Way has also suffered violent collisions like this, and more await in the future. Studying events like this provides us with the knowledge to understand how massive galaxies grow and evolve over millions and billions of years, our origins, and even the evolution of the universe itself.
The image, called IC 2431, shows what appears to be a triple collision taking place 681 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Cancer. You can see a tumultuous mix of star formation and tidal distortions caused by the gravitational interactions of this galactic trio. The center of the image is obscured by a thick cloud of dust, although light from a background galaxy can be seen streaming through its outer edges.
According to NASA, this image is part of a series of Hubble observations investigating the weird and wonderful galaxies found by the Galaxy Zoo citizen science project. The project invited more than 100,000 volunteers to classify images of 900,000 galaxies captured by the Hubble telescope which they have never been thoroughly examined. Then, using Hubble’s powerful Advanced Camera Survey (ACS), astronomers took a closer look at some of the more unusual galaxies identified by the volunteers. “The project accomplished what would have been years of work for a professional astronomer in just 175 days and has led to a steady stream of similar citizen science astronomical projects.”
Collision of three galaxies captured by the Hubble Space Telescope Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, W. Keel, Dark Energy Survey, DOE, FNAL, DECam, CTIO, NOIRLab/NSF/AURA, SDSS/J. Schmidt
As we have already mentioned, our galaxy is not free from collisions and is heading towards a very exciting collision, it will merge with the nearby Andromeda galaxy in about 4.5 billion years. This collision will completely change the view of the night sky, but as chaotic as it may seem, planetary systems (including ours) will most likely remain unscathed. The gravitational effect of the collision can change the trajectory of the stars, but the distance between them is too large for the stars to collide with each other. When galaxies collide, a vast sea of material condenses, serving as a cradle for new stars.
Hubble is a joint mission of NASA and ESA. Since its launch in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble’s unique design, which allows astronauts to repair and upgrade it with advanced technology, has made it one of the most valuable observatories, bringing unprecedented new knowledge through insight into cosmic wonders.
Even today, Hubble continues to provide an incredible variety of images that have amazed and inspired the public, as is the case with this galactic trio, which beyond its particular shape, gives us a lot to learn. The more collisions are detected, the greater the accuracy of a model that indicates the past and future evolution of the universe.
You can see the detailed image on the ESA Hubble website.
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2024-01-20 00:01:57
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