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Credit & Copyright: NASA,
ESA,
Hubble Heritage
(STScI /
AURA),
A. Evans (U. Virginia / NRAO / Stony Brook U.)
Explanation:
NGC 6240 offers a rare, nearby glimpse of a cosmic catastrophe in its
final throes.
The titanic
galaxy-galaxy
collision
takes place
a mere 400 million light-years away in the constellation
Ophiuchus.
The merging galaxies
spew distorted tidal tails
of stars, gas, and dust and undergo
fast and furious
bursts of star formation.
The two supermassive
black holes in the original galactic cores
will also coalesce into a single, even more massive black hole and
soon, only one large galaxy will remain.
This
dramatic image of the scene is a
composite of narrowband and near-infrared to visible broadband
data from Hubble's ACS and WPC3 cameras,
a view that spans over 300,000 light-years at the estimated distance
of NGC 6240.
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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: merging galaxies
Publications with words: merging galaxies
See also: