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Antennae Galaxies, Gary Imm

Antennae Galaxies

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Antennae Galaxies, Gary Imm

Antennae Galaxies

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Description

Arp 244 is my favorite Arp object.  Two galaxies are captured in a cosmic dance that reflects the early courtship stage of an eventual merger.  The object’s beauty belies the destructive gravitation forces that are reshaping the gas, dust and stars of these galaxies on a massive scale.

Computer simulations have been used to study this object in great deal.  So much so that you will see these referred to as studies of “Antennae Galaxy types”, which reflects the fact that numerous objects like this one exist in our universe.  The unique characteristics of this galaxy type are:

- Object consists of 2 close interacting spiral galaxies
- 2 distinct core areas remain
- Both galaxies are similar in size
- A thick star stream bridges between the galaxies
- Pair of long star stream tails

Studies of this galaxy type suggests that the merger happens relatively quickly in cosmic time.  The “dance” is not a long one, with multiple orbits.  Rapid orbital decay is the rule in collisions of equal-mass galaxies.

I have included 12 objects in the poster which look like Antennae Galaxy types to me.   I also have imaged other objects which seem like they are Antennae Galaxy types, but our view of them prevents us from making a definitive determination.  If you picture a 3D model of an Antennae Galaxy type, and then rotate it different ways in your mind, you will see that there are many viewing angles at which the structure of the galaxy pair looks instead like a single muddled object.

This poster captures these objects at a snapshot in time.  Fast forward millions of years and I think that these same objects will look more like the objects shown on my Late Stage Merger poster.

If you would like to read more about any of these objects, each of the objects in the poster has previously been uploaded and described individually on Astrobin. They all reside in my Astrobin Galaxy Merger (Antennae) Collection.

If you would like to access all my DSO compilation posters, please click here.

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