The second search term is ‘butterfly galaxies’ that are being merged.
On the 9th, the American Institute of Optical Infrared Astronomy released a picture of the ‘Butterfly Galaxy’ taken with the Gemini North Telescope on the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii.
This is an early image of two giant spiral-shaped galaxies collided and merged.
Two galaxies, regarding 60 million light-years from Earth, are now approaching each other, and the researchers believe that the Butterfly Galaxy will be reborn as an elliptical galaxy in the next 500 million years.
One of the reasons that experts are so interested in these two galaxies is that they give us a glimpse into the future of our galaxy.
Our Milky Way is also moving closer to the neighboring Andromeda Galaxy at a speed of 400,000 km per hour.
Astronomers call galaxies that have not yet formed ‘milcomeda’.
Netizens responded, “I can’t believe that there is such a huge and beautiful galaxy in the sky.”, “I feel that the country is so small. I want to live without worries~”.
(Screen source: NOIRLab)