Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Corvus (Crv)  ·  Contains:  Antennae Galaxies  ·  NGC 4038  ·  NGC 4039
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NGC 4038_4039, Jochen Maes
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NGC 4038_4039, Jochen Maes

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Description

NGC 4038 and 4039 are a pair of interacting galaxies in the Corvus constellation, around 60 million light years from earth.

What you’re looking at is the result of two galaxies currently undergoing merger. Because of all the turmoil this introduces (gas clouds colliding and compressing), this galaxy is highly active in new star formation (a “starburst galaxy” in astronomy speak); spitting out newly formed stars at a much higher rate than “normal” comparable galaxies.

As you would imagine, at these scales; this is a long and slow process. We estimate the merger to have started roughly a billion years ago and will be fully “complete” in another 400-500 million years. The end result will be one single large galaxy, likely elliptical.

Image acquisition details:

15x900” HA
25x900” Luminance
17x900” Red
17x900” Green
24x900” Blue

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NGC 4038_4039, Jochen Maes