File:Cosmic “flying V” of merging galaxies (8463896989).jpg

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This large “flying V” is actually two distinct objects — a pair of interacting galaxies known as IC 2184. Both the galaxies are seen almost edge-on in the large, faint northern constellation of Camelopardalis (The Giraffe), and can be seen as bright streaks of light surrounded by the ghostly shapes of their tidal tails.



These tidal tails are thin, elongated streams of gas, dust and stars that extend away from a galaxy into space. They occur when galaxies gravitationally interact with one another, and material is sheared from the outer edges of each body and flung out into space in opposite directions, forming two tails. They almost always appear curved, so when they are seen to be relatively straight, as in this image, it is clear that we are viewing the galaxies side-on.



Also visible in this image are bursts of bright blue, pinpointing hot regions where the stars from both galaxies have begun to crash together during the merger.



The image consists of visible and infrared observations from Hubble’s Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2.

A version of this picture was entered into the Hubble’s Hidden Treasures image-processing competition by contestant Serge Meunier.

More information: <a href="http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1306a/" rel="nofollow">www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1306a/</a>

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ESA/Hubble & NASA
Date
Source Cosmic “flying V” of merging galaxies
Author Hubble ESA

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This image was originally posted to Flickr by Hubble Space Telescope / ESA at https://flickr.com/photos/51268976@N08/8463896989. It was reviewed on 8 December 2020 by FlickreviewR 2 and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-2.0.

8 December 2020

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current19:21, 8 December 2020Thumbnail for version as of 19:21, 8 December 2020946 × 946 (53 KB)Eyes Roger (talk | contribs)Transferred from Flickr via #flickr2commons

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