October 31, 2007

Deadly Dance of Two Galaxies

Yesterday, the Hubble telescope spotted two intertwining galaxies and produced this stunning image:

The pair of galaxies are gliding past each other, and literally through each other, and the effects of gravity are evident. Even in the spiral arms, which appear as "fuzz", there are many millions of stars and even though they pass through the galaxy together, stars won't likely collide, though orbits will likely be altered.