Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Corvus (Crv)  ·  Contains:  Antennae  ·  Antennae Galaxies  ·  HD104456  ·  HD104496  ·  NGC 4038  ·  NGC 4039
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NGC 4038, NGC 4039 Antennae Galaxies, rdhand
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NGC 4038, NGC 4039 Antennae Galaxies

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
NGC 4038, NGC 4039 Antennae Galaxies, rdhand
Powered byPixInsight

NGC 4038, NGC 4039 Antennae Galaxies

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Description

60 million light-years away two large galaxies are colliding. Stars in the two galaxies, cataloged as NGC 4038 and NGC 4039, very rarely collide in the course of  the collision that lasts for  hundreds of millions of years. But the galaxies' large clouds of molecular gas and dust often do, triggering episodes of star formation near the center. Spanning over 500 thousand light-years, this view also reveals matter and stars flung far from the scene of the collision by gravitational tidal forces. The image shows the faint tidal tails of stars forming the antennae

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NGC 4038, NGC 4039 Antennae Galaxies, rdhand

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