Hubble captures a tilted galaxy inducing star formation in its companion.
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| Arp 300, a pair of interacting spiral galaxies, is showcased in this fresh image captured by the NASA Hubble Space Telescope. The image was processed by Gladys Kober from NASA/Catholic University of America, with contributions from J. Dalcanton from the University of Washington and R. Windhorst from Arizona State University. |
The Arp 300 system is composed of two spiral galaxies, namely UGC 05028 and UGC 05029. UGC 05028, the smaller face-on spiral galaxy, exhibits an irregular and asymmetric structure. This unique feature is more apparent in the recent image captured by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, as opposed to ground-based telescopes. It is believed that this peculiar structure is a result of the gravitational interaction between UGC 05028 and its larger companion galaxy, UGC 05029.
Welcome to Arp 300!
— Hubble (@NASAHubble) January 22, 2024
These galaxies are interacting with each other, pulled closer by their mutual gravity – this spurs new star formation, seen as the bright blue regions in these spiral galaxies: https://t.co/sc7RtX7ADu#CosmicCollisions pic.twitter.com/RFHFyOPMCC
The visible knot located southeast of the center of UGC 05028 could potentially be the remaining part of a smaller galaxy that is currently merging with UGC 05028. In the future, this remnant will merge with the bar of stars observed in Hubble images of UGC 05028, resulting in the formation of a central bulge similar to that of UGC 05029, which is the larger companion galaxy of Arp 300.
UGC 05029 exhibits a distinct spiral structure and showcases multiple hot, blue giant stars on the side facing UGC 05028. This increased star formation is likely a result of the interaction between these two galaxies. Additionally, there is another spiral galaxy visible below UGC 05029 in this image, although it is too faint to be resolved into star-forming regions. The five objects positioned above it are most likely a collection of distant background galaxies.
The purpose of Hubble's observation of this pair of galaxies was to examine the correlation between the overall physical characteristics of galaxies and their star formation.
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