If you like slow dances, then this may
be one for you. A single turn in this dance takes several hundred million years. Two
galaxies, NGC 5394 and NGC 5395, slowly whirl about each other in a gravitational interaction that
sets off a flourish of sparks in the form of new stars. The featured
image, taken with the Gemini North 8-meter telescope on Maunakea, Hawaii, USA, combines four different colors.
Emission from hydrogen gas, colored red,
marks stellar nurseries where new
stars drive the evolution of the galaxies. Also visible
are dark dust lanes that mark
gas that will eventually become stellar nurseries. If you look
carefully you will see many more galaxies in the background, some involved
in their own slow cosmic dances.
Image & info via APOD
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