With each turn, several hundred million years pass. That’s how slow this slow dance of these two galaxies, the NGC 5394 and the NGC 5395, is. As they whirl about each other, a flourish of sparks appear because of gravitational interaction, and new stars are formed. If that’s not romantic, I don’t know what is.
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.
We could make a love story out of this.
(Image Credit: Gemini, NSF, OIR Lab, AURA)
Comments (1)
As he said, you probably wouldn't notice if it someone didn't tell you and showed a photo contrasting the sizes. As far as subtle effects you probably don't notice about the Moon, the libration of the moon is a lot cooler in my opinion, as illustrated in a (simulated) animation here.