Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Space
  3. News

Two interacting galaxies are warped by gravitational forces in Hubble image

Georgina Torbet
By

This week’s image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows two galaxies close enough together to have just one shared name: Arp-Madore 608-333. They are what is known as interacting galaxies, meaning that the huge pull of each of their gravitational fields is affecting the other. The power of gravity is warping their shapes and distorting them into uneven forms.

“Though they appear serene and unperturbed, the two are subtly warping one another through a mutual gravitational interaction that is disrupting and distorting both galaxies,” Hubble scientists said in a note accompanying the image release. “This drawn-out galactic interaction was captured by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys.”

The two interacting galaxies making up the pair known as Arp-Madore 608-333 seem to float side by side in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.
The two interacting galaxies making up the pair known as Arp-Madore 608-333. ESA/Hubble & NASA, Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA, J. Dalcanton

These interacting galaxies are different from other galaxy pairs, like the pair called VV 191, imaged by Hubble and the James Webb Space Telescope this week. VV 191 appears to be a close pair, but in fact, they are overlapping, not interacting. From our point of view on Earth, it seems that the two are occupying the same space, but one is in front of the other. A similar pair of overlapping galaxies that appear even closer together was imaged by Hubble earlier this year.

Related

When it comes to galaxies that are truly interacting because they are close together, things can get messy. Galaxies can collide with each other, creating tremendous pockets of star formation as they merge. These interactions can create stunning and unusual shapes, like the Angel Wing system, in which two merging galaxies have formed the shape of wings. Sometimes even more than two galaxies can interact, like the Hickson Compact Group 31 — also imaged by Hubble — which contains four galaxies that are in the process of merging into one.

Recommended Videos

However, two galaxies colliding don’t always merge to form a larger galaxy. Sometimes, these collisions can result in the annihilation of one of the galaxies, and scientists believe that it is the supermassive black hole found at the heart of almost all galaxies that determines whether a collision will result in a merger or in one galaxy destroying the other.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Georgina Torbet
Georgina Torbet
Space Writer
Georgina is the Digital Trends space writer, covering human space exploration, planetary science, and cosmology. She…
Hubble observes a cluster of boulders around impacted asteroid Dimorphos
A NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of the asteroid Dimorphos taken on 19 December 2022.

Last year, NASA deliberately crashed a spacecraft into an asteroid, in a first-of-its-kind test of planetary defense. At the time, telescopes around the world including the Hubble Space Telescope observed the impact between the DART spacecraft and the Dimorphos asteroid, capturing footage of the plumes of dust thrown up. Now, Hubble has observed Dimorphos once again and seen that a number of boulders have been ejected from the asteroid.

The Hubble image shown below was taken on 19 December 2022, around four months after the impact, and shows the bright streak of the asteroid across the sky, surrounded by small boulders which were knocked loose during the impact. This view was only possible after several months as the impact initially sent up large amounts of dust which made it difficult to see the asteroid in detail.

Read more
Zoom into stunning James Webb image to see a galaxy formed 13.4 billion years ago
A section of a James Webb image showing a small part of the Extended Groth Strip, located between the Ursa Major and Boötes constellations.

One of the amazing things about the James Webb Space Telescope is the level of detail it is able to capture of very distant objects -- but it can be hard to picture what that means when the distances being considered are so large. Now, a new visualization gives a feel of just how detailed the data from the telescope is, by showing how it's possible to start with a stunning view of thousands of galaxies and zoom closer and closer in until you reach just one.

CEERS: Flight to Maisie's Galaxy

Read more
One galaxy, two views: see a comparison of images from Hubble and Webb
The peculiar galaxy NGC 3256 takes centre stage in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This distorted galaxy is the wreckage of a head-on collision between two spiral galaxies which likely occurred 500 million years ago, and it is studded with clumps of young stars which were formed as gas and dust from the two galaxies collided.

It might not seem obvious why astronomers need multiple different powerful space telescopes. Surely a more powerful telescope is better than a less powerful one? So why are there multiple different telescopes in orbit, either around Earth or around the sun?

The answer is to do with two main factors. One is the telescope's field of view, meaning how much of the sky it looks at. Some telescopes are useful for looking at large areas of the sky in less detail, working as survey telescopes to identify objects for further research or to look at the universe on a large scale -- like the recently launched Euclid mission. While others, like the Hubble Space Telescope, look at small areas of the sky in great detail, which is useful for studying particular objects.

Read more