오늘의 NASA 우주 사진 (2023-10-24)

안녕하세요, 히제입니다.
오늘 NASA에서 비춰주는 우주의 모습은 어떠할까요?
사진 먼저 감상하시죠!

 

이 사진의 제목은 Arp 87: Merging Galaxies from Hubble 입니다. NASA에서 제공한 공식 설명은 아래와 같습니다.

 

This dance is to the death. As these two large galaxies duel, a cosmic bridge of stars, gas, and dust currently stretches over 75,000 light-years and joins them. The bridge itself is strong evidence that these two immense star systems have passed close to each other and experienced violent tides induced by mutual gravity. As further evidence, the face-on spiral galaxy on the right, also known as NGC 3808A, exhibits many young blue star clusters produced in a burst of star formation. The twisted edge-on spiral on the left (NGC 3808B) seems to be wrapped in the material bridging the galaxies and surrounded by a curious polar ring. Together, the system is known as Arp 87. While such interactions are drawn out over billions of years, repeated close passages will ultimately create one merged galaxy. Although this scenario does look unusual, galactic mergers are thought to be common, with Arp 87 representing a stage in this inevitable process. The Arp 87 dancing pair are about 300 million light-years distant toward the constellation of the Lion (Leo). The prominent edge-on spiral galaxy at the far left appears to be a more distant background galaxy and not involved in the on-going merger.

 

우주 사진을 볼 때마다, 끝을 알 수 없는 저 광활한 우주 속에서 우리 사람이란 존재가 얼마나 작은 부분인가 실감하게 됩니다.
그럼 저는 내일 또 새로운 우주 사진과 함께 돌아오겠습니다:-) 좋은 하루 되세요!