Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
January 1, 1999
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
January 1, 1999
Explanation: ESO202-G23 is a colourful mess. It is a collision between two galaxies taking place over hundreds of millions of years. The representative colours give astronomers some idea of what is going on. Visible in this jumble is an active nucleus spewing ultraviolet radiation which lights up surrounding gas (blue); galactic arms contorted by the gravity of the collision (green); a star forming complex left of centre (blue); and dust (red). In billions of years this mess might settle into a relatively normal looking galaxy.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry
Bonnell (USRA)
NASA Technical Rep.:
Jay Norris.
Specific rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA
at
NASA/
GSFC
&:
Michigan Tech. U.