The Antennae Galaxies, also known as the Ringtail Galaxy or Arp 244, are a pair of colliding galaxies located in
Corvus constellation. The interacting spiral galaxies have the designations NGC 4038 and NGC 4039 in the New General Catalogue.The galaxy collision resembles an insect’s antennae, which is how the pair got the name. The “antennae” are formed by two long tails of stars, dust and gas expelled from the galaxies as a result of their interaction.
The Antennae Galaxies are going through a phase of intense starburst activity as their colliding clouds of dust and gas compress massive molecular clouds and cause rapid formation of millions of new stars. Some of the newly formed stars are gravitationally bound and form massive clusters.More than a thousand bright clusters consisting of newly formed stars have recently been discovered in the Ringtail Galaxy by astronomers. The brightest and most compact starburst regions contain super star clusters. Billions of stars will be formed before the galactic collision is over.The Antennae Galaxies’ nuclei are in the process of joining to form a single giant galaxy. This will happen within the next 400 million years. Simulations of the galactic collision indicate that as the galaxies’ nuclei join to form a single core, the two galaxies will eventually form a single giant elliptical galaxy.The Antennae Galaxies lie at a distance of 45 million light years from Earth.
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