The arresting image of heave clouds and shimmering colors is impressive in more than just the aesthetics . call for by the Hubble Space Telescope , the pink pyrotechnic seen burst across the picture are all stars forge in the aftermath of a massive cosmic collision between two galaxy some 24 million light - years from Earth .
Despite gravity being , fundamentally speaking , a pretty faint force , it still has the ability to mold the existence . Over a class of million of old age , it has caused two galaxies next to one another , the vast NGC 4490 and it ’s more diminutive neighbor NGC 4485 , to come in slamming into each other . In the process of this huge impact , hotshot are organize .
The smaller of the two galaxy was trapped in the hold of the expectant one ’s gravitational forces , seal their fate as they dance around one another until the inevitable happened . The picture show see here is a snapshot of just after the almighty collision , after the two galaxy collide and then passed through one another .
The result is a complete altering of NGC 4490 ’s shape , with it having been pulled and stretched to such a stage that it has now been nicknamed theCocoon Galaxy , as all traces of its once corkscrew structure has been obliterated . Its familiar galaxy , NGC4485 , which can not in reality be seen in this paradigm , has however managed to retain its spiral subdivision .
As the two galaxy murder each other , the dust and gas swirled together under massive force per unit area create the weather condition ripe for star geological formation . These riffle patches can be seen in glorious pinky chromaticity of dense clouds of ionised hydrogen . The newly created new , hot stars have been showering these patches with ultraviolet light , enlighten them and give them their glowing appearance .
When both NGC 4490 and NGC 4485 are see together , a slender ribbon of newly forming star some 24,000 lightheaded - years long hangs between them , trace the path the two made as the galaxies passed through one another .
Yet as stars are formed , others will die . Within NGC 4490 , despite it now being known as a starburst galaxy in light of the innumerable wiz being born and begin their lives , there are also a handful of supernovae , as others are die and coming to the end of theirs .
But this dance does not cease there . The fortune of NGC 4490 and NGC 4485 are intrinsically linked , as in around a billion years graveness will once again force these two galaxies to converge once more in a yet another magnificent cosmic clash .
