A cosmic embrace

In this image, two spiral galaxies, similar in looks to the Milky Way, are participating in a cosmic ballet, which, in a few billion years, will end up in a complete galactic merger — the two galaxies will become a single, bigger one.

Located about 150 million light-years away in the constellation of Canis Major (the Great Dog), NGC 2207 — the larger of the two — and its companion, IC 2163, form a magnificent pair. English astronomer John Herschel discovered them in 1835.

The fatal gravitational attraction of NGC 2207 is already wreaking havoc throughout its smaller partner, distorting IC 2163’s shape and flinging out stars and gas into long streamers that extend over 100,000 light-years. The space between the individual stars in a galaxy is so vast, however, that when these galaxies collide, virtually none of the stars in them will actually physically smash into each other.

This image was captured with the ESO Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera (EFOSC2) through three wide band filters (B, V, R). EFOSC2 has a 4.1 x 4.1 arcminute field of view and is attached to the 3.6-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile.

Bildnachweis:

ESO

Über das Bild

ID:ngc2207
Typ:Beobachtung
Veröffentlichungsdatum:3. Dezember 2009 23:18
Größe:1995 x 2005 px

Über das Objekt

Name:IC 2163, NGC 2207
Typ:Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Spiral
Entfernung:150 Million Lichtjahre
Constellation:Canis Major
Kategorie:Galaxies

Bildformate

Großes JPEG
1,1 MB

Bildschirm-Hintergrundbilder

1024x768
180,0 KB
1280x1024
321,6 KB
1600x1200
532,6 KB
1920x1200
715,2 KB
2048x1536
821,2 KB

Koordinaten

Position (RA):6 16 22.14
Position (Dec):-21° 22' 23.25"
Field of view:5.23 x 5.26 arcminutes
Orientierung:Die Nordrichtung liegt 1.8° rechts zur Vertikale

Farben & Filter

SpektralbereichWellenlängeTeleskop
Optisch
B
440 nmESO 3.6-metre telescope
EFOSC2
Optisch
V
547 nmESO 3.6-metre telescope
EFOSC2
Optisch
R
643 nmESO 3.6-metre telescope
EFOSC2