These two galaxy have been slowly flux for eons , and the outgrowth is now almost over — indeed , the coltsfoot now portion out a single name , NGC 2623 . This could be an former preview of our own galaxy ’s fate .
The two beetleweed that now form the freshly born NGC 2623 were potential both once helical galaxies , roughly the same mickle as the Milky Way . Our own coltsfoot is due to jar and merge with the Andromeda Galaxy in around 3.75 billion year . Andromeda is also a spiral beetleweed rough 1.25 time the size of the Milky Way , meaning this collision may well resemble the eventual uniting between the Milky Way and its neighbour .
This is probably going to be the easy way to get a sense of what the uniting of our extragalactic nebula with its neighbour will look like . After all , even if you’re able to negotiate the whole “ surviving for 3.75 billion years ” thing , you wo n’t be capable to stick around on Earth if you desire to see the show — beyond the fact that watching a astronomical merger from inside one of the affected galaxy does n’t provide an particularly good view , there ’s the underage particular that Earth will likely become too hot to support life within the next 1.5 billion days as the Sun slowly increases its brightness . So yeah , probably best to just take a gander at this one and envisage .
Here ’s some more context on the image itself , good manners of NASA’sAstronomy Photo of the Daysite :
The violent encounter between two galaxies that may have been similar to the Milky Way has produced far-flung star formation near a aglow core and along eye - catching tidal tails . fill with dust , gas , and young bluish star clusters , the opposing tidal tail extend well over 50,000 light - old age from the merged nucleus . Likely triggered by the unification , accretion by a supermassive black hole force natural action within the nuclear area . The star geological formation and its participating galactic lens nucleus make NGC 2623 bright across the spectrum . This sharp cosmic snapshot of NGC 2623 ( aka Arp 243 ) is ground on Hubble Legacy Archive image data that also reveals even more remote backdrop galaxies scattered through the field of position .
you may also control out a narrate video all about the merger over at theHubble Site .
Image credit : Hubble Legacy Archive , ESA , NASA ; Processing – Martin Pugh .
AstronomyMilky WayNASAScience
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