The Gemini North telescope, one half of the Worldwide Gemini Observatory, operated by NSF’s NOIRLab, captured this dazzling picture of the so-called Taffy Galaxies — UGC 12914 and UGC 12915. Their twisted look is the results of a head-on collision that occurred about 25 million years previous to their look on this picture. A bridge of extremely turbulent fuel devoid of great star formation spans the hole between the 2 galaxies.
A very long time in the past, two spiral galaxies far, far-off had been slowly drawing nearer to one another, till, about 25 million to 30 million years earlier than the picture right here was taken, they collided head-on.
Discovered 180 million light-years away within the constellation Pegasus, each UGC 12914 and UGC 12915 managed to drag away from one another however had been left badly warped and stretched from this violent occasion. The aftermath reveals a bridge of hydrogen fuel connecting the 2. In radio photographs, it makes the galaxies appear to be heat taffy sweet being pulled aside. That, plus their twisted appearances, led to the nickname the Taffy Galaxies.
There was a lot momentum that every galaxy stored transferring regardless of the crash — a case of a galactic hit-and-run. Such collisions usually set off speedy bursts of star formation, however for this pair the other occurred. The cosmic dust and glowing purple clouds of ionized hydrogen between the galaxies have all the mandatory supplies for brand new stars to be born. Nonetheless, as a result of head-on nature of the collision, the affect between galactic disks and gases injected an enormous quantity of vitality, creating fierce turbulence. This chaos hindered the gathering and compression of fuel vital for brand new star formation.
