This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image depicts the cosmic tangle that is MCG+05-31-045, a pair of interacting galaxies located 390 million light-years away and a part of the Coma galaxy cluster.
The Coma Cluster is like a cosmic city packed with over a thousand galaxies. If you’ve got a backyard telescope, you can actually spot some of them—check out Caldwell 35 for a start!
Most of the galaxies in this cluster are elliptical, which isn’t surprising. In dense clusters like this, galaxies get up close and personal, sometimes even colliding. These interactions stir things up big time.
Here’s how it works.
When galaxies get too close, their stars mostly stick together, but their gas gets twisted and compressed by gravity. This sparks a frenzy of star formation.
The problem is, those big, bright blue stars don’t live long, and once they burn out, there’s usually not much gas left to make new stars. This leaves behind galaxies full of older, cooler stars orbiting in random directions—welcome to the world of elliptical galaxies.
Spiral galaxies, with their gorgeous arms, don’t stand a chance in these interactions. Gravity messes up their neat structures, and the spirals are no more.
Take MCG+05-31-045, for instance. This smaller spiral galaxy is in for a rough ride as it gets absorbed by a bigger galaxy.
During this process, tons of new stars will be born, but the hot, blue ones will fade fast. What’s left will cool and settle into another elliptical galaxy, just like its neighbors in the Coma Cluster.
But don’t hold your breath—this cosmic makeover will take millions of years to finish!
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