Arp 142: The Hummingbird Galaxy

What’s going on to this spiral galaxy? Generous a pair of hundred million years prior to now, NGC 2936, the upper of the 2 clean galaxies proven on the bottom, was as soon as seemingly a fashioned spiral galaxy — spinning, increasing stars — and minding its agree with industry. But then it got too terminate to the gigantic elliptical galaxy NGC 2937, appropriate below, and took a turn. Every so incessantly dubbed the Hummingbird galaxy for its iconic form, NGC 2936 is no longer finest being deflected but furthermore being distorted by the terminate gravitational interplay. Within the serve of filaments of dark interstellar dust, radiant blue stars diagram the nostril of the hummingbird, while the center of the spiral seems as an recognize. Alternatively, the galaxy pair, together is named Arp 142, recognize to a pair admire Porpoise or a penguin defending an egg. The featured re-processed image showing Arp 142 in sizable part was as soon as taken lately by the Hubble Apartment telescope. Arp 142 lies about 300 million gentle years away in direction of the constellation of the Water Snake (Hydra). In a thousand million years or so the 2 galaxies will seemingly merge into one greater galaxy.