Hubble spots two galaxies rubbing off on each other

[Judi Lynn]

Mike Wehner @MikeWehner
December 2nd, 2019 at 11:47 PM

Size is always relative, and that’s especially true when it comes to outer space. We’re tiny creatures, so we think of the Earth as this incredibly large thing, with our solar system being almost impossibly large. The size of our home galaxy, the Milky Way, is hard to wrap our heads around, so when we peer into space and spot a pair of galaxies cuddling up close to each other it’s a difficult thing to grasp.

In this image captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, the cosmic feature known as Arp 293 is presented in gorgeous detail. Arp 293 is actually two separate galaxies that have drifted so close to one another that they’ve begun to share some of their material.

The two galaxies that makeup Arp 293 are NGC 6285 (on the left in the image) and NGC 6286 (on the right). From our point of view, they’re sitting virtually side-by-side. They’re far closer to one another than many galaxies we can observe from Earth, and while they’re still separated by many millions of light-years, their respective gravitational pulls are acting on the other.

As you can see in the image released by the ESA and NASA, material from both galaxies has begun to drift into space between the pair. This appears as a bluish haze in the image, and it’s made of various clouds of dust and gasses that are being pulled back and forth.

More:
https://bgr.com/2019/12/02/space-news-hubble-galaxies/

[KelleyKramer]

1. Outstanding picture!

Eventually they will merge together into one large galaxy