NGC 4038 / NGC 4039 Group - Raw fits data obtained from
Hubble Legacy Archive.
Image integrated with HLA Ha dataset.
The NGC 4038 Group is a group of galaxies in the constellations Corvus and Crater about 50 Mly from Earth. The group may contain between 13 and 27 galaxies. The group's best known galaxies are the Antennae Galaxies (NGC 4038/NGC4039), a well-known interacting pair of galaxies.
The Antennae are undergoing a galactic collision. Located in the NGC 4038 group with five other galaxies, these two galaxies are known as the 'Antennae' because the two long tails of stars, gas and dust thrown out of the galaxies as a result of the collision resemble the antennae of an insect. The nuclei of the two galaxies are joining to become one giant galaxy. Most galaxies probably undergo at least one significant collision in their lifetimes.
About 1.2 billion years ago, the Antennae were two separate galaxies. NGC 4038 was a barred spiral galaxy and NGC 4039 was a spiral galaxy. Before the galaxies collided, NGC 4039 was larger than NGC 4038. 900 million years ago, the Antennae began to approach one another, looking similar to NGC 2207 and IC 2163. 600 million years ago, the Antennae passed through each other, looking like the Mice Galaxies. 300 million years ago, the Antennae's stars began to be released from both galaxies. Today the two streamers of ejected stars extend far beyond the original galaxies, making the antennae shape.
Within 400 million years, the Antennae's nuclei will collide and become a single core with stars, gas, and dust around it. Observations and simulations of colliding galaxies suggest that the Antennae Galaxies will eventually form an elliptical galaxy.
This is likely the future of our Milky Way when it collides with the Andromeda Galaxy.
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