NGC 6769-71, located in the southern Pavo constellation (the Peacock) at a distance of 190 million light-years
An unusual triplet of galaxies dance through space in this new image from European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope. The galaxies are bound by mutual gravity.
The system is called NGC 6769-71 and is located in the southern constellation Pavo, the Peacock, at a distance of 190 million light-years.
Galaxy interaction is common in the universe. Our own galaxy will one day tangle with the huge Andromeda galaxy and eventually merge. In the new picture, astronomers find stars and gas stripped from the two larger galaxies are starting to form a common envelope around them. There is also a weak hint of a tenuous bridge between the galaxy at the top left of the image and the smaller galaxy below.
The interaction causes compression of gas that breeds new star formation. Blue regions of the two larger galaxies are created by the intense radiation from hot, newborn stars.
See a gallery of other images from the Very Large Telescope, which is located at the Paranal Observatory in Chile.
Credit: ESO/VLT, MELIPAL+VIMOS
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