Astronomy news update from NASA :
What's happening to these spiral galaxies? Although details remain
uncertain, there sure seems to be a titanic battle going on. The
upper galaxy is labelled UGC 1810 by itself, but together with its
collisional partners is known as
Arp 273. The overall shape of the UGC 1810 -- in particular its
blue outer ring -- is likely a result of wild and
violent gravitational interactions. The blue color of the outer ring at the top is caused by massive stars that are
blue hot and have formed only in the past few million years. The inner part of the upper galaxy -- itself an older spiral galaxy -- appears redder and threaded with cool
filamentary dust. A few bright
stars appear well in the foreground, unrelated to colliding galaxies, while several far-distant galaxies are visible in the background.
Arp 273 lies about 300 million light years away
toward the constellation of Andromeda. Quite likely, UGC 1810 will
devour its
galactic sidekicks over the next billion years and settle into a classic
spiral form.
from NASA https://ift.tt/2rTyjjY
via
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