Colliding Spirals - NGC 4038 & 4039 - The Antennae Galaxies

Image Title: Colliding Spirals - NGC 4038 & 4039 - The Antennae Galaxies

Copyright: Timothy Marti

Date image was taken: May 03, 2024

Location: Deep Sky West remote observatory near Santa Fe, NM

Image Description and Details: About 45 million light years away in the Corvus constellation, NGC 4039 (left) and NGC 4038 (right) are caught in mid collision spewing out two long tidal arcs of stars due to gravitational forces. This gives it the appearance of antennas (or truck nuts, depending on whether and how you are affected by pareidolia).

More detailed Hubble images and analysis ( https://hubblesite.org/contents/media/images/2006/46/1995-Image.html ) reveals that the collision is generating hundreds of gigantic, massive star clusters. Most will eventually disperse, but perhaps 100 or so of these will survive to become globular clusters. So these galaxies are a window onto the mechanisms that create those gravitationally bound collections of hundreds of thousands of stars. This is important because the globular clusters that are close enough for us to study in detail are almost as ancient as the universe itself, and any clues to how they formed are lost in the deeps of time.

Equipment Details: Planewave CDK12.5; 10Micron GM2000; Moravian C5a-100M; Chrom

Website or Facebook Profile: http://www.astrobin.com/users/AccidentalAstronomers/