碰撞螺旋星系Arp 274

2023年1月23日

The Colliding Spiral Galaxies of Arp 274
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble; Processing & Copyright: Mehmet Hakan Özsaraç

Explanation: Two galaxies are squaring off in Virgo and here are the latest pictures. When two galaxies collide, the stars that compose them usually do not. This is because galaxies are mostly empty space and, however bright, stars only take up only a small fraction of that space. But during the collision, one galaxy can rip the other apart gravitationally, and dust and gas common to both galaxies does collide. If the two galaxies merge, black holes that likely resided in each galaxy center may eventually merge. Because the distances are so large, the whole thing takes place in slow motion — over hundreds of millions of years. Besides the two large spiral galaxies, a smaller third galaxy is visible on the far left of the featured image of Arp 274, also known as NGC 5679. Arp 274 spans about 200,000 light years across and lies about 400 million light years away toward the constellation of Virgo.

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碰撞螺旋星系Arp 274
图像提供: NASA, ESA, Hubble; 影像处理与版权: Mehmet Hakan Özsaraç

说明: 两个星系正在室女座里缠斗，而这是它们最新的图像。当星系互撞时，恒星通常不会真的撞在一起，因为星系里几乎是空无一物，组成星系的恒星只占星系空间的极小部分。不过，当星系互撞时，星系能以重力撕裂另一个星系，而两个星系内无所不在的尘埃与云气则真的会撞成一团。如果最终两个星系合并，位于个别星系核心的黑洞或许也会合而为一。由于星系的间距非常大，碰撞是以慢动作在进行，整个过程会持续数亿年。在这幅主题图像里除了2个大螺旋星系之外，左缘附近还可见到较小的第三个星系Arp 274（亦名为NGC 5679）。宽约200,000光年的Arp 274，位在室女座方向约4亿光年远之处。

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