[The Epoch Times, September 26, 2023](Epoch Times reporter Chen Juncun reported) The Hubble Space Telescope of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) captured a peculiar picture. It shows two different types of galaxies colliding and merging.
NASA released this image on September 22. The object, named Arp 107, combines two colliding galaxies about 465 million light-years away from Earth.
NASA points out that the galaxy on the left side of the picture is larger. It is a type of energetic galaxy with a bright core called Seyfert galaxies. Although the core of such a galaxy is very bright, radiation can be observed from throughout the galaxy, including spiral structures, star-forming regions, and dust lanes.
The galaxy on the right side of the picture is smaller. The two galaxies are connected by what appears to be a slender bridge of dust and gas.
American astronomer Halton Arp published the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies in 1966, which included 338 strange-shaped galaxies, most of which were galaxies that were interacting and merging. Including Arp 107, there are also some strange galaxies with one or three spiral arms or shell-like structures.
The Hubble Space Telescope is observing Arp 107 under an observation program. This observing program selects galaxies from the Special Galaxy Atlas for observation, in part to provide the public with images of these spectacular and difficult-to-define galaxies.
In addition to two galaxies colliding with each other, the Hubble Space Telescope has also captured images of three galaxies interacting.
NASA released images of Arp 248 last year. Arp 248 consists of three spiral galaxies, also known as the Wild Triplet. These galaxies are located in the constellation Virgo, about 200 million light-years away from Earth.
Arp 248 consists of three spiral galaxies, also known as the Wilder Triple Galaxy. (NASA)
Visible in this image are Arp 248’s two large spiral galaxies, located at the upper left and lower right of the image. There appears to be a glowing bridge connecting the two galaxies. This structure, called a tidal tail, is composed of extended streams of stars and interstellar gas, formed by the gravitational pull between the two galaxies.
The two galaxies are almost face-on to Earth, and there is a small orange spiral galaxy in the background between them, which we can see sideways.
The Hubble Space Telescope uses its Advanced Camera for Surveys to search for strange galaxies that it and the James Webb Space Telescope and the Atacama Large Millimeter and Submillimeter Array can provide. Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) and other telescopes are looking for future observation targets, and pictures of these strange galaxies can also arouse the interest of the public. ◇
Editor in charge: Li Ming#
