The Antennae Galaxies

February 11, 2024

Located about 65 million light-years away in the constellation Corvus, the Antennae Galaxies, formally known as NGC 4038 and NGC 4039, aren't waltzing gracefully. They are colliding, their gravitational pull tearing at each other, stretching them into elongated tails that resemble an insect's antennae, hence their name. This head-on collision, initiated hundreds of millions of years ago, is expected to culminate in the complete merger of the two galaxies within a few billion years.

But it's not just the physical drama that makes the Antennae Galaxies intriguing. This celestial clash has ignited a starburst, a frenzy of star formation triggered by the compressed gas and dust clouds. Hubble Space Telescope images reveal young, blue star clusters scattered across the galaxies, some containing hundreds of thousands of stars - veritable stellar nurseries witnessing the birth of new suns.

Learn more at Hubble's Cosmic Collisions from NASA.

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