NASA’s Hubble shares stunning image of ‘Arp 195’ triplet galaxies in tug-of-war
While the galaxy on the left can be seen facing the frame, the centre is horizontally perpendicular to the edge, while the third has a long visible trail of shiny stardust.
FollowDid you know galaxies are stretching quintillions of kilometres in the vast universe? Recently, Hubble Space Telescope has captured three galaxies engaged in a three-way tug-of-war. While humans' squabbles can have petty reasons, galaxies squabble for just one reason, and that is none other than gravitation. The galaxies have enough gravity to pull out stardust --- star, asteroids and items from other nearby galaxies. If both their pulls are strong enough, they do not hesitate to collide.
Recently, NASA posted an image captured by Hubble on its website, in which three galaxies can be seen in a gravitational squabble. While the galaxy on the left can be seen facing the frame, the centre is horizontally perpendicular to the edge, while the third has a long visible trail of shiny stardust.
The system of the galaxies belongs to a catalogue of peculiar galaxies, known as the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies. The classifications are done based on the strange structures they create during the interaction. The catalogue was produced in 1996 by Halton arp.
The list of peculiar galaxies includes interacting galaxies — galaxies who disturb each other by the power of their gravitational field. It also includes dwarf galaxies, and other members are radio galaxies that produce radio jets — highspeed beams of ionised matter are produced by the supermassive black holes at the centre of such active galaxies.
