The European Space Agency (ESA) has released a fascinating image that shows, for the first time, a cosmic collision and consequent merger of three galaxies. The breathtaking moment was captured by the Hubble telescope.
Spiraling through space, three distant galaxies collide and unite in a fascinating new photograph captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. The object is called IC 2431 and is located about 681 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Crab, according to information released by ESA.
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The image shows the triple merger of developing galaxies, as well as a tumultuous mix of star formation and distortions caused by the galactic trio’s gravitational interactions.
The merger was detected thanks to a citizen-organized science project called Galaxy Zoo, which challenged more than 100,000 volunteers to sort through space telescope images of 900,000 galaxies that had never been scrutinized in depth.
This project accomplished in 175 days what astronomers would take years to achieve, according to NASA, adding that the initiative has already yielded a number of exciting discoveries, such as this one.
Galactic mergers aren’t exactly a new thing. Hubble recorded the merger of two galaxies earlier this year and there is even a prediction that the Milky Way will collide with the Andromeda Galaxy at some point, 4.5 billion years from now.
Studying these types of events can help astronomers better understand our galaxy’s past and future. The Milky Way is believed to have devoured more than a dozen other galaxies in the last 12 billion years.
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