November 23, 2024

Hubble Captures a Dangerous Dance Over 100 Million Light-Years From Earth

By ESA/Hubble
October 3, 2021

Hubble Space Telescope image of Arp 91, a pair of intertwined galaxies (NGC 5953 and NGC 5954). Credit: ESA/Hubble & & NASA, J. Dalcanton, Acknowledgement: J. Schmidt
The 2 galaxies making up Arp 91 do have their own names: the lower galaxy, which in this image looks like an intense area, is understood as NGC 5953; and the ovoid galaxy to the upper right is NGC 5954. In reality, both of these galaxies are spiral galaxies, but their shapes appear extremely various due to the fact that they are orientated differently with respect to Earth.
It is the enormous gravitational destination of the 2 galaxies that is causing them to interact. Such gravitational interactions in between galaxies are common, and are a crucial part of galactic evolution. The majority of astronomers nowadays think that collisions between spiral galaxies lead to the formation of another type of galaxy, understood as elliptical galaxies.