Galaxy Glows With New Stars Produced From Close Encounter
NGC 4485, the irregular galaxy, displays all the symptoms of having been comprised in a hit-and-run crash with a passing by galaxy. Instead of wiping out the galaxy, the chance encounter is producing a new species of stars, and most probably planets.
The right side of the galaxy is glowing with formation of star, displayed in star-hatching pinkish nebulas and a number of teen blue stars. The left end, on the other hand, seems unaffected. It has clues of the previous spiral structure of the galaxy that was going through normal galactic development at one time.
NGC 4490, the bigger culprit galaxy, is off the bottom of the structure. The two galaxies crossed each other millions of years back and are now 24,000 Light Years away. The gravitational fight between them produced rippling patterns of high-density dust and gas inside both galaxies. This process activated a spell for formation of star.
This galaxy is a close by example of the type of cosmic accidents that was more ordinary billions of years back when galaxies were closer together and the space was smaller.
Speaking of galaxies, the ESA/NASA Hubble Space Telescope has snapped the most comprehensive picture yet of a nearby neighbor of our galaxy—the Triangulum Galaxy, a curved galaxy situated only 3 Million Light Years away. This panoramic study of the 3rd-biggest galaxy in our galaxies’ local group offers a mesmerizing scenario of the 40 Billion Stars that comprise one of the most remote objects seen by the naked eye.
This new picture of the Triangulum Galaxy—also dubbed as NGC 598 or Messier 33—has an astounding 665 Million pixels and displays the inner spiral arms of the galaxy and its central area. To combine together this huge mosaic, the Advanced Camera for Surveys by of Hubble required creating 54 different pictures.