Explanation:
The two prominent stars in the foreground of
this
colorful skyscape
are well within our own
Milky Way Galaxy.
Their spiky appearance
is due to diffraction in the astronomer's telescope.
But the two eye-catching galaxies in view lie far
beyond the Milky Way,
at a distance of about 200 million light-years.
Their distorted appearance is due to gravitational tides
as the pair engage
in
close encounters.
From our perspective, the bright cores of the galaxies are
separated by about 80,000 light-years.
Cataloged
as
Arp 273 (also as UGC 1810), the galaxies do look
peculiar,
but interacting galaxies are now understood to be
common in the universe.
In fact, the nearby large spiral Andromeda Galaxy is known to be
some 2 million light-years away and approaching the Milky Way.
Arp 273 may offer an analog of their
far future encounter.
Repeated galaxy encounters on a
cosmic timescale can ultimately
result in a merger into a single galaxy of stars.
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