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Credit & Copyright: Collaborative Astrophotography Team (CAT)
Explanation:
In the upper left corner, surrounded by blue arms and
dotted with red nebulas, is spiral galaxy
M81.
In the lower right corner, marked by a light central line and surrounded by
red glowing gas, is irregular galaxy
M82.
This stunning vista
shows these two mammoth galaxies locked in
gravitational combat,
as they have been for the past billion years.
The gravity from each galaxy
dramatically affects the
other during each hundred-million-year pass.
Last go-round, M82's gravity likely raised
density waves rippling around
M81,
resulting in the richness of
M81's
spiral arms.
But M81 left
M82 with
violent star forming regions and colliding gas clouds so energetic the galaxy
glows
in X-rays.
This big battle is
seen from Earth through the faint glow of an
Integrated Flux Nebula,
a little studied complex of diffuse gas and dust clouds in our
Milky Way Galaxy.
In a few billion years, only one galaxy
will remain.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: colliding galaxies - M 81 - M 82
Publications with words: colliding galaxies - M 81 - M 82
See also:
- 38 Hours in the M81 Group
- Messier 81
- APOD: 2024 July 30 Á Arp 142: Interacting Galaxies from Webb
- APOD: 2024 April 15 Á The Cigar Galaxy from Hubble and Webb
- APOD: 2023 September 25 Á Arp 142: The Hummingbird Galaxy
- APOD: 2023 August 2 Á M82: Galaxy with a Supergalactic Wind
- APOD: 2023 January 23 Á The Colliding Spiral Galaxies of Arp 274