Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Spiraling Tentacles of DOOOOOM!!!



Long live HUBBLE!!

Check out this amazing image (in high resolution)- it's simply stunning.
This newly released Hubble image shows the intertwined pair called Arp 87, two big galaxies undergoing a collision. Halton Arp is an astronomer who cataloged peculiar galaxies in the 1970s, and many of them have been found to be colliding, or at least interacting in some way. This pair consists of NGC 3808A, the big spiral on the right, and NGC 3808B, the odd cigar-shaped dude on the left (actually, it’s an edge-on spiral). They are about 300 million light years away in the constellation of Leo, for those keeping track at home. They are separated by about 100,000 light years. The other edge-on spiral is a background galaxy, apparently.
Linkee: Spiraling Tentacles of Doom. Most excellent.

Hat tip to Tom, who was kind enough to email me the link.

3 comments:

The Squirrel said...

So beautiful! Do you think you're kitty Maxx has a first row seat to see all this?

I love your pictures of him btw... he seemed to have such a strong presence and soul. You were blessed to have him.

four legs good said...

I hope he does.

He was such a sweet boy- probably the nicest kitteh that ever lived. Everyone loved him, all my neighbors, the mailman, his vets, his oncologist... everyone.

Anonymous said...

The bigger pic at the link, that shows the blue sparkles linking the galaxies to each other is so beautiful it takes my breath away.

And gives me another wallpaper.

Long Live Hubble, indeed!