Hubble images a pair of galaxies caught in the process of merging

By Georgina Torbet January 14, 2024

After last week’s image of the week from the Hubble Space Telescope showed a cluster of galaxies that appeared to be very close to each other but actually weren’t, this week’s image shows two images that are practically on top of each other. The two galaxies shown in the image below, NGC 6040 and LEDA 59642, are so close that they are interacting and have a shared name as a pair, Arp 122.

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features Arp 122, a peculiar galaxy that in fact comprises two galaxies – NGC 6040, the tilted, warped spiral galaxy and LEDA 59642, the round, face-on spiral – that are in the midst of a collision. — This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features Arp 122, a peculiar galaxy that in fact comprises two galaxies – NGC 6040, the tilted, warped spiral galaxy and LEDA 59642, the round, face-on spiral – that are in the midst of a collision. ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Dalcanton, Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA Acknowledgement: L. Shatz

NGC 6040 is the galaxy on the top, which is stretched into a long, thin shape by the tremendous force of gravity from the rounder, face-on galaxy in the center-right, LEDA 59642. When galaxies come close together, the forces of gravity from both massive objects can interact and twist or distort one or both of the galaxies into unusual shapes, as has happened here.

The colliding of two galaxies is an epic event, and it can result in the destruction of one galaxy. At other times, the two colliding galaxies can merge into one. After hundreds of millions of years, the two can become one even larger galaxy, as may happen to Arp 122.

“Galaxies are composed of stars and their solar systems, dust, gas, and invisible dark matter. In galactic collisions, therefore, these constituent components may experience enormous changes in the gravitational forces acting on them,” Hubble scientists explain. “In time, this completely changes the structure of the two (or more) colliding galaxies, and sometimes ultimately results in a single, merged galaxy. That may well be what results from the collision pictured in this image.”

Our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is scheduled to collide with our galactic neighbor, the Andromeda galaxy, in around four billion years. That collision would likely create a giant elliptical galaxy as a merger between the two.

However, another theory states that before that happens, the Milky Way could collide with a smaller satellite galaxy called the Large Magellanic Cloud in around two billion years’ time. This theory states that the forces of the two colliding galaxies could spur the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy into overdrive, causing it to swell in size and send out powerful jets of radiation.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Tech News

Georgina Torbet

Space Writer

Georgina is the Digital Trends space writer, covering human space exploration, planetary science, and cosmology. She…

Space

Hubble spies baby stars being born amid chaos of interacting galaxies

Galaxy AM 1054-325 has been distorted into an S-shape from a normal pancake-like spiral shape by the gravitational pull of a neighboring galaxy, seen in this Hubble Space Telescope image. A consequence of this is that newborn clusters of stars form along a stretched-out tidal tail for thousands of light-years, resembling a string of pearls. They form when knots of gas gravitationally collapse to create about 1 million newborn stars per cluster.

When two galaxies collide, the results can be destructive, with one of the galaxies ending up ripped apart, but it can also be constructive too. In the swirling masses of gas and dust pulled around by the gravitational forces of interacting galaxies, there can be bursts of star formation, creating new generations of stars. The Hubble Space Telescope recently captured one such hotbed of star formation in galaxy AM 1054-325, which has been distorted into an unusual shape due to the gravitational tugging of a nearby galaxy.

Galaxy AM 1054-325 has been distorted into an S-shape from a normal pancake-like spiral shape by the gravitational pull of a neighboring galaxy, as seen in this Hubble Space Telescope image. A consequence of this is that newborn clusters of stars form along a stretched-out tidal tail for thousands of light-years, resembling a string of pearls. NASA, ESA, STScI, Jayanne English (University of Manitoba)

Space

Small exoplanet could be hot and steamy according to Hubble

This is an artist’s conception of the exoplanet GJ 9827d, the smallest exoplanet where water vapour has been detected in its atmosphere. The planet could be an example of potential planets with water-rich atmospheres elsewhere in our galaxy. It is a rocky world, only about twice Earth’s diameter. It orbits the red dwarf star GJ 9827. Two inner planets in the system are on the left. The background stars are plotted as they would be seen to the unaided eye looking back toward our Sun, which itself is too faint to be seen. The blue star at upper right is Regulus, the yellow star at bottom centre is Denebola, and the blue star at bottom right is Spica. The constellation Leo is on the left, and Virgo is on the right. Both constellations are distorted from our Earth-bound view from 97 light-years away.

One of the big topics in exoplanet research right now is not just finding exoplanets but also looking at their atmospheres. Tools like the James Webb Space Telescope are designed to allow researchers to look at the light coming from distant stars and see how it is filtered as it passes by exoplanets, allowing them to learn about the composition of their atmospheres. But scientists are also using older telescopes like the Hubble Space Telescope for similar research -- and Hubble recently identified water vapor in an exoplanet atmosphere.

“This would be the first time that we can directly show through an atmospheric detection that these planets with water-rich atmospheres can actually exist around other stars,” said researcher Björn Benneke of the Université de Montréal in a statement. “This is an important step toward determining the prevalence and diversity of atmospheres on rocky planets."

Space

Hear the otherworldly sounds of interacting galaxies with this Hubble sonification

This new NASA Hubble Space Telescope image showcases a resplendent pair of galaxies known as Arp 140.

When two different galaxies get close enough together that they begin interacting, they are sometimes given a shared name. That's the case with a newly released image from the Hubble Space Telescope that shows two galaxies, NGC 274 and NGC 275, which are together known as Arp 140. not only is there a new image of the pair, but there's also a sonification available so you can hear the image as well as see it.

This new NASA Hubble Space Telescope image showcases a resplendent pair of galaxies known as Arp 140. NASA/ESA/R. Foley (University of California - Santa Cruz)/Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)