Hubble takes pictures of six merging galaxies

NASA and the European Space Agency have released six images showing the merging of galaxies. The photographs were taken by the Hubble telescope. You can view all pictures in original resolution here.

During such events, galaxies undergo dramatic changes in their own structure and star clusters. For example, the Milky Way forms star clusters with a mass of 10 thousand greater than the mass of the Sun. There are galaxies where the difference reaches millions. Even after merging, galaxies will still shine brightly enough during the transition to the quiet phase.

Such interactions are a key aspect of galactic evolution and are also some of the most spectacular events in the life of the galaxy.

The Hubble telescope is located in an orbit with an altitude of about 569 kilometers and over 30 years of work has presented science with thousands of valuable images, including many different galaxies. In 2008, in honor of the 18th anniversary of the telescope, NASA published an archive of 59 images of colliding galaxies.