Post by glactus on Sept 21, 2008 10:30:22 GMT
The Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), the newest camera on NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, has captured a spectacular pair of galaxies engaged in a celestial dance of cat and mouse or, in this case, mouse and mouse.
NGC 4676, or the Mice Galaxies, are two spirals in the constellation Coma Berenices. About 300 million light-years from Earth, and are presently in the process of colliding and merging. Magnitude is 13.8. .
Their name refers to the long tails produced by tidal action — the relative difference between gravitational pulls on the near and far parts of each galaxy — known here as a galactic tide.
(NGC 4676A, is to the right in the photo, a core with some dark markings is surrounded by a bluish white remnant of spiral arms.
The tail is unusual, starting out blue and terminating in a more yellowish color, despite the fact that the beginning of each arm in virtually every spiral galaxy starts yellow and terminates in a bluish color.
The lower galaxy, NGC 4676B, to the left and is closer to normal, with a yellowish core and two arcs; arm remnants underneath are bluish as well.
The Mice are a photogenic pair and Astonomers have studied them in great detail as their present activity may be the same when the Milky Way merges with Andomeda in a few billion years.
The Mice
Credits: The Mice - NASA Hubble image.
