The larger and more massive galaxy is cataloged as NGC 2207 (on the
left in the Hubble Heritage image), and the smaller one on the right is
IC 2163. Strong tidal forces from NGC 2207 have distorted the shape of
IC 2163, flinging out stars and gas into long streamers stretching out a
hundred thousand light-years toward the right-hand edge of the image.
The high resolution of the Hubble telescope image reveals dust lanes in
the spiral arms of NGC 2207, clearly silhouetted against IC 2163, which
is in the background. Hubble also reveals a series of parallel dust
filaments extending like fine brush strokes along the tidally stretched
material on the right-hand side. The large concentrations of gas and
dust in both galaxies may well erupt into regions of active star
formation in the near future.
Trapped in their mutual orbit around each other, these two galaxies will
continue to distort and disrupt each other. Eventually, billions of
years from now, they will merge into a single, more massive galaxy. It
is believed that many present-day galaxies, including the Milky Way,
were assembled from a similar process of coalescence of smaller galaxies
occurring over billions of years.
http://www.skyimagelab.com/
The larger and more massive galaxy is cataloged as NGC 2207 (on the
left in the Hubble Heritage image), and the smaller one on the right is
IC 2163. Strong tidal forces from NGC 2207 have distorted the shape of
IC 2163, flinging out stars and gas into long streamers stretching out a
hundred thousand light-years toward the right-hand edge of the image.
The high resolution of the Hubble telescope image reveals dust lanes in the spiral arms of NGC 2207, clearly silhouetted against IC 2163, which is in the background. Hubble also reveals a series of parallel dust filaments extending like fine brush strokes along the tidally stretched material on the right-hand side. The large concentrations of gas and dust in both galaxies may well erupt into regions of active star formation in the near future.
Trapped in their mutual orbit around each other, these two galaxies will continue to distort and disrupt each other. Eventually, billions of years from now, they will merge into a single, more massive galaxy. It is believed that many present-day galaxies, including the Milky Way, were assembled from a similar process of coalescence of smaller galaxies occurring over billions of years.
http://www.skyimagelab.com/
The high resolution of the Hubble telescope image reveals dust lanes in the spiral arms of NGC 2207, clearly silhouetted against IC 2163, which is in the background. Hubble also reveals a series of parallel dust filaments extending like fine brush strokes along the tidally stretched material on the right-hand side. The large concentrations of gas and dust in both galaxies may well erupt into regions of active star formation in the near future.
Trapped in their mutual orbit around each other, these two galaxies will continue to distort and disrupt each other. Eventually, billions of years from now, they will merge into a single, more massive galaxy. It is believed that many present-day galaxies, including the Milky Way, were assembled from a similar process of coalescence of smaller galaxies occurring over billions of years.
http://www.skyimagelab.com/
