A dazzling new photo from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows two member galaxies of the galaxy cluster Abell 1185: the elliptical galaxy NGC 3558 and the barred spiral galaxy LEDA 83465.
Both NGC 3558 and LEDA 83465 are located approximately 450 million light-years away in the constellation of Ursa Major.
NGC 3558 is an elliptical galaxy, radiating light in a perfectly even sphere from a bright center.
LEDA 83465 is a barred spiral galaxy, with arms that are wispy like fog connected to a bar crossing the galaxy’s shining core.
They are member of the galaxy cluster Abell 1185, which is roughly one million light-years across.
“NGC 3558 and LEDA 83465 are separated from one another by a distance of roughly 150,000 light-years, which might sound vast, until we consider that our nearest galactic neighbor — the Andromeda galaxy — is a whopping 2.5 million light-years distant from the Milky Way Galaxy,” the Hubble astronomers said.
“In galactic terms, the two galaxies pictured here are practically on top of one another.”
“This is because they belong to a crowded and chaotic galaxy cluster known as Abell 1185, which is packed with galaxies that are interacting with one another via gravity.”
“These galactic interactions have sometimes led to dramatic results, such as galaxies being torn apart completely.”
NGC 3558 is also classified as a low-ionization nuclear emission-line region (LINER).
“In fact, it probably attained its present form by devouring smaller galaxies in the cluster — galaxies much like LEDA 83465,” the astronomers said.
“LINERs are a particular type of galactic nucleus or core, and are distinguished by the chemical fingerprints written into the light that they emit.”
“As their name suggests, LINERs emit light which suggests that many of the atoms and molecules within these galactic cores have either been weakly ionized or not ionized at all.”
“Ionization is the process by which atoms or molecules lose or…
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