Gonna Slow It Waaay Down Now

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Behold: the slow, slow dance of galaxies NGC 5394 and NGC 5395. How slow? Each turn takes several hundred million years. To wit:

NGC 5394 and NGC 5395, slowly whirl about each other in a gravitational interaction that sets off a flourish of sparks in the form of new stars. The featured image, taken with the Gemini North 8-meter telescope on Maunakea, Hawaii, USA, combines four different colours. Emission from hydrogen gas, coloured red, marks stellar nurseries where new stars drive the evolution of the galaxies. Also visible are dark dust lanes that mark gas that will eventually become stellar nurseries. If you look carefully you will see many more galaxies in the background, some involved in their own slow cosmic dances.

(Image: Gemini, NSF, OIR Lab, AURA; Text: Ryan Tanner (NASA/USRA))

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2 thoughts on “Gonna Slow It Waaay Down Now

  1. Lush

    Perfectly lovely for the Friday débauche (as we say here in St Émilion), and no before anyone jumps in, it’s nothing to do with racy goings-on.
    And now it’s time for a beer.
    Happy weekend one and all.

    1. Janet, I ate my avatar

      a glass of Italian red for me, hope all is well in your Galaxy Lushie , santé, (I’d love an auld débauche)

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