The Hubble Space Telescope has revealed the collision of two distant galaxies in the VV-689 system, producing what have been dubbed “angel wings,” RT reports.
The collision occurred in the constellation Leo, and the cosmic wings were formed when the two gravitationally bound bodies collided and merged, deforming each other.
“Unlike the squash lineup of galaxies that only appear to overlap as seen from our vantage point on Earth, the two galaxies in VV689 are in the midst of a collision,” ESA officials said in a statement.
For example, in 2012, Hubble captured an image of what looked like two overlapping galaxies, called NGC 3314, apparently in the midst of a collision, but in this case, it was just a trick of perspective, according to the European Space Agency.
The galactic interaction left VV-689 almost completely symmetrical, giving the impression of a large set of galactic wings.
Many galactic collisions are inevitable and began billions of years ago. By observing how galaxies move relative to each other, scientists can predict if and when galaxies will collide, according to NASA.
For example, astronomers predicted that within regarding 5 billion years, the Milky Way will inevitably collide with its neighboring galaxy, Andromeda (Andromeda), according to Live Science previously.
The “angelic” image is part of a set of observations by NASA’s Hubble and the European Space Agency, which took a closer look at the “Galaxy Zoo project”, a social astronomy project that invites people to help classify large numbers of galaxies. interesting.
This project relies on hundreds of thousands of volunteers to classify galaxies and help astronomers wade through a deluge of data from robotic telescopes.
