Copyright:CHART32 Team
原文:
Scanning the skies for galaxies, Canadian astronomer Paul Hickson and colleagues identified some 100 compact groups of galaxies, now appropriately called Hickson Compact Groups (HCGs). This sharp telescopic image captures one such galaxy group, HCG 91, in beautiful detail. The group’s three colorful spiral galaxies at the center of the field of view are locked in a gravitational tug of war, their interactions producing faint but visible tidal tails over 100,000 light-years long. Their close encounters trigger furious star formation. On a cosmic timescale the result will be a merger into a large single galaxy, a process now understood to be a normal part of the evolution of galaxies, including our own Milky Way. HCG 91 lies about 320 million light-years away in the constellation Piscis Austrinus. But the impressively deep image also catches evidence of fainter tidal tails and galaxy interactions close to 2 billion light-years distant.
中文翻譯:
📸 掃描天際尋找星系，加拿大天文學家 Paul Hickson 和他的同事們發現了約 100 個緊湊星系團，現在被稱為 Hickson Compact Groups (HCGs)。這幅清晰的望遠鏡影像捕捉到了其中一個星系團 HCG 91 的美麗細節。中央的三個色彩繽紛的螺旋星系正處於引力拉鋸戰中，它們之間的互動產生了長達 100,000 光年的微弱但可見的潮汐尾巴。這些近距離的相遇觸發了激烈的恆星形成。在宇宙的時間尺度上，這最終將導致合併為一個大型單一星系，這個過程現在被理解為星系演化的正常部分，包括我們的銀河系。HCG 91 約在 3.2 億光年之外，位於南魚座（Piscis Austrinus）。但是，這幅令人印象深刻的深度影像也捕捉到了接近 20 億光年距離的微弱潮汐尾巴和星系互動的證據。
#HicksonCompactGroups #HCG91 #GalacticInteractions #StarFormation #CosmicEvolution #Astronomy #SpacePhotography #DeepSky #GalaxyMerger #PiscesAustrinus #AstronomyLovers #NightSky #SpaceExploration #Astrophotography
來源:NASA每日圖片
