Space Saturday XXV
I barely made it, but here is the 25th edition of my Space Saturday: The Antennae Galaxies!
Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration (Source)
The Antennae Galaxies (also known as NGC 4038 and NGC 4039) are two galaxies in the process of colliding (and have been doing so for some 200 or 300 million years). The collision is taking place in the constellation Corvus approximately 63-68 million light years away. Because of the collision there are large clusters of star birth regions. Billions of stars have been created because of this intergalactic crash. It is also quite lovely to look at!
See my Space Saturday Archive for more astronomy pictures!
Resources:
APOD - The Antennae Galaxies
APOD - The Antennae Galaxies in Collision
IPAC at CalTec - The Antennae Galaxies
ESA - The Colliding Antennae Galaxies [heic0615]
HubbleSite - Super Star Clusters in the Antennae Galaxies
Wikipedia - Antennae Galaxies
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