When Worlds Collide: Hubble Telescope Captures Galaxy Merger

While the merging of two galaxies might sound positively horrifying, the resulting image is quite beautiful to behold. Luckily for us, this particular galaxy merger took place 250-million light years away in the constellation Cancer, so we don’t have to worry about any collateral damage here on the big, blue ball. Pictures of the galactic merger were taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and released today. The pictures show the galaxies merging into what has been named NGC 2623, which includes a super-energetic nucleus and tails of star clusters on either side. Each tail is estimated to be 65,000 to 80,000 light years long and includes a bright cluster of stars created by the energy of the nucleus. It’s believed that the pictures display the late stages of the galactic collision and estimates place the age of NGC 2623 at 100 million years.

While we remain safe from this ancient collision, astronomers estimate that a similar galactic collision is likely to take place right here in the Milky Way–3 to 4 billion years from now. The Andromeda galaxy is headed directly at us, sailing through space at speeds of 300,000 mph–luckily it’s still a ways away, and 3 billion years is quite a heads up. So for now, the galactic merger remains a unique, beautiful and safely-remote phenomenon. [via MSNBC] [Image: Aaron Evans/Stony Brook U./NASA/ESA]