Antennae galaxies in Merging Process - NGC 4038/NGC 4039 (Fernando)

Antennae galaxies in Merging Process - NGC 4038/NGC 4039

The Antennae is a pair of spiral galaxies that are interacting. They began their galactic merge a few hundred million years ago and are currently in a period where their colliding gas clouds resulting in the creation of new stars.

As the two galaxies merge, their gravitational interactions pull long tails of gas away from each other, and these tails are the sites of starburst activity. In a few billion years, the cores of these two galaxies will be combined into one large core, with a supermassive black hole at its heart. It will be surrounded by an elliptical galaxy of old stars.

Galaxy Profile

Some Databook information:

Designation: NGC 4038/NGC 4039

Type: Interacting Spirals

Diameter: hundreds of thousands of light-years

Distance: 45-64 million light-years away

Group: Virgo Cluster

Some additional facts about the Antennae Galaxies

1- Spiral galaxies that combine as the Antennae are doing will most likely ultimately end up as elliptical galaxies.The merger will erase all traces of their spiral arms.

2- It is likely that when the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxies combine, they will look similar to the Antennae during at least one point of their interaction.

3- Of the millions of new stars created during the Antennae merger, only about ten percent of them will live longer than 10 million years. That’s because they will be massive blue supergiants, a type of star that quickly consumes its nuclear fuel and explodes as a supernova.

4- The remaining massive young star clusters formed during starburst activity will become the new galaxy’s globular clusters.

5- The Antennae galaxies are the closest colliding galaxies to the Milky Way.

Image information:

Frames:

Luminance: 25 frames of 600sec

RGB: 8 frames of 600sec

Ha: 6 frames of 1200sec

Instruments Used:

Scope: Newtonian Quattro 10"

Camera Trio SX694

Processing:

Pixinsight

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Description: Some more luminance sub-frames in the stack

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Status	Basic success
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Astrometry.net job	2781204
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Antennae galaxies in Merging Process - NGC 4038/NGC 4039

Antennae galaxies in Merging Process - NGC 4038/NGC 4039

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Antennae galaxies in Merging Process - NGC 4038/NGC 4039

Antennae galaxies in Merging Process - NGC 4038/NGC 4039

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