In celebration of a new year, the NASA / ESA Hubble Space Telescope has published a montage of six beautiful Milky Way mergers. Each of these fusion systems has been studied as part of the recent HiPEEC survey to examine the rate of new star formation within such systems. These interactions are an important aspect of galaxy evolution and are one of the most spectacular events in the life of a galaxy. Credit: ESA / Hubble Information Center
It is during rare mergers that galaxies change dramatically in their appearance and in their star content. These systems are excellent laboratories for detecting the formation of star clusters under extreme physical conditions.
The galaxy usually forms star clusters with masses that are 10 thousand times the mass of our sun. It can not be compared to the masses of galaxies that form in colliding galaxies, which can reach millions of times the mass of our sun.
These dense galaxies are also very bright. Even after the collision, when the resulting galactic system begins to fade into a calmer phase, these very massive star clusters will shine throughout their host system, as long-term witnesses of merging events in the past.
By studying the six merger combinations shown here, the survey of the Hubble Image Probe of Extreme Environments and Bunches (HiPEEC) investigated how star clusters are affected during collisions by the rapid changes in the rate at which new stars in these galaxies formed is drastically increased. Hubble’s capabilities have made it possible to solve large star-forming ‘knots’ in numerous compact young star orbits. Hubble’s ultraviolet and near-infrared observations of these systems have been used to deduce star clusters, masses, and extinctions, and to analyze the rate of star formation in these six fusing galaxies.
The HiPEEC study shows that the star cluster populations undergo large and rapid variations in their characteristics, with the most massive clusters formed towards the end of the fusion phase.
Milky Way ‘reverse’
In Adamo et al. Star cluster formation in the most extreme environments: insights from the HiPEEC survey, Monthly notices from the Royal Astronomical Society (2020). DOI: 10.1093 / mnras / staa2380
Provided by ESA / Hubble Information Center
Quotation: When galaxies collide: Hubble displays six beautiful galaxy societies (2021, January 7) detected on January 8, 2021 from https://phys.org/news/2021-01-galaxies-collide-hubble-showcases-beautiful.html
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