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Hubble captures stunning image of three galaxies merging 681 million light years away

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According to the European Space Agency (ESA), the Hubble Space Telescope captured an image of the galaxy merger IC 2431, which occurred 618 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Cancer. The image captures a mix of star formation and tidal distortions caused by the gravitational interactions of the three galaxies.

While galaxies are merging, collisions of celestial bodies are rare because they are so far apart. In some of its textbooks, NASA uses the metaphor of grains of sand separated by the length of a football field to understand the vast distances between celestial bodies. When galaxies combine, they lose their shape and form a new, usually elliptical one.

But the thick cloud of dust obscuring the center of the image points to another phenomenon that happens when galaxies merge: clouds of gas and dust that are part of galaxies collide, sometimes leading to the formation of new stars.

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Complete News Source : THE INDIAN EXPRESS

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