Peculiar Galaxies of Arp 273
Image Credit & Copyright: Wolfgang Ries/Stefan Heutz (Astrokooperation)
Explanation: The
spiky stars in the foreground of this
sharp cosmic portrait are well within our own
Milky Way Galaxy. The two eye-catching galaxies lie far
beyond the Milky Way, at a distance of over 300 million light-years. Their distorted appearance is due to gravitational tides as the pair engage
in close encounters. Cataloged
as Arp 273 (also as UGC 1810), the galaxies do look
peculiar, but interacting galaxies are now understood to be common in the universe. In fact, the nearby large spiral Andromeda Galaxy is known to be some 2 million light-years away and approaching the Milky Way. Arp 273 may offer an analog of their
far future encounter. Repeated galaxy encounters on a
cosmic timescale can ultimately result in a merger into a single galaxy of stars. From our perspective, the bright cores of the Arp 273 galaxies are separated by only a little over 100,000 light-years.
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