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Credit & Copyright:
David Martinez-Delgado (MPIA, IAC), et al.
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Explanation:
This
telescopic snapshot records a cosmic moment in
the tumultuous lives of large spiral galaxy NGC 3227 and smaller
elliptical NGC 3226.
Catching them in the middle of an ongoing
gravitational
dance, the sensitive imaging also follows faint tidal star streams
flung from the galaxies in their repeated close encounters.
Over
50 million light-years distant toward the constellation Leo,
the pair's appearance has earned them the designation Arp 94 in
the classic catalog
of peculiar galaxies.
But such galactic collisions and mergers are now thought to represent
a normal course
in the evolution of galaxies, including our own Milky Way.
Spanning about 90,000 light-years, similar in size to the Milky Way,
NGC 3227 is
recognized as an active Seyfert galaxy with a central
supermassive black hole.
Note: How to find
APOD
Alternative Mirror Sites
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& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day