Hubble Telescope Spotted Galaxy Duo Rushing Past Each Other At Lepus ‘The Hare’ Constellation

NASA’s Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) and Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) instruments spotted a galaxy duo on the Hare constellation. The galaxy duo was then deemed to be peculiar because they were once two separate galaxies which only passed each other.

According to Science Daily, the galaxy duo observed from a distance of 500 million light-years was named unusual galaxy IRAS 06076-2139. It was seen in the Hare constellation and was also stated to only have a separation of 20,000 light-years. Hence, researchers concluded they are not possible to merge and form one galaxy together.

The speed wherein the galaxies were rushing past each other was then believed to be 2 million kilometers (1,243,000 miles) per hour. The meeting of the two galaxies was identified to be too fast. The result was said to be that both galaxies will distort one another through the force of gravity while passing each other. Thus, changing both the galaxy’s structures.

Nonetheless, it was reported that aside from the phenomenon seen expressed by the galaxy duo spotted in the Hare constellation, other behaviors are also formed. Galactic cannibalism, galaxy harassment and even galaxy collisions were also cited to be galaxy interactions witnessed by the Hubble telescope.

Mail Online also shared that aside from the Galaxy duo, the Hubble telescope also studied the Crab Nebula yesterday. The Very Large Array (radio), the Spitzer Space Telescope (infrared), the Hubble Space Telescope (visible), the XMM-Newton, and Chandra X-ray Observatory (X-Ray) were mentioned to be used for the study but further investigations about the nebula was advised by Gloria Dubner from the Institute of Astronomy and Physics.

The Milky Way galaxy along with the Andromeda galaxy was described to undergo a galaxy collision in about 4.5 billion years. Rest assured, NASA explained that no stellar collisions would occur between the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxy collision. The reason was then identified to be the galaxies population of stars and the large distance of individual stars between them.