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> Colliding galaxies NGC 2207 and IC 2163

Colliding galaxies NGC 2207 and IC 2163

author: NASA/Hubble Heritage Team/Novapix

reference: a-gax22-07001

Image Size 300 DPI: 24 * 12 cm

The larger and more massive galaxy is cataloged as NGC 2207 (on the left in the Hubble Heritage image), and the smaller one on the right is IC 2163. Strong tidal forces from NGC 2207 have distorted the shape of IC 2163, flinging out stars and gas into long streamers stretching out a hundred thousand light-years toward the right-hand edge of the image. The calculations indicate that IC 2163 is swinging past NGC 2207 in a counterclockwise direction, having made its closest approach 40 million years ago. However, IC 2163 does not have sufficient energy to escape from the gravitational pull of NGC 2207, and is destined to be pulled back and swing past the larger galaxy again in the future. The high resolution of the Hubble telescope image reveals dust lanes in the spiral arms of NGC 2207, clearly silhouetted against IC 2163, which is in the background. The large concentrations of gas and dust in both galaxies may well erupt into regions of active star formation in the near future. Eventually, billions of years from now, these galaxies will merge into a single, more massive galaxy. It is believed that many present-day galaxies, including the Milky Way, were assembled from a similar process of coalescence of smaller galaxies occurring over billions of years.

Keywords for this photo:

1998 - 1999 - ASTRONOMY - CANIS MAJOR - COLLISION - GALAXY - HST - HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - IC 2163 - INTERACTING - NGC 2207 - SPIRAL GALAXY - STAR -