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Galaxies, giants of the Universe
A Runaway Galaxy  Against a stunning backdrop of thousands of galaxies, this odd-looking galaxy with the long streamer of stars appears to be racing through space, like a runaway pinwheel firework. The Hubble Deep Field  Besides the classical spiral and elliptical shaped galaxies, there is a bewildering variety of other galaxy shapes and colors that are important clues to understanding the evolution of the universe. Some of the galaxies may have formed less that one billion years after the Big Bang. Two Merging Galaxies  Resembling a nightmarish beast rearing its head from a crimson sea, this monstrous object is actually an innocuous pillar of gas and dust. Called the Cone Nebula (NGC 2264) — so named because, in ground-based images, it has a conical shape — this giant pillar resides in a turbulent star-forming region.
The Heart of the Whirlpool Galaxy  The Whirlpool galaxy, M51, has been one of the most photogenic galaxies in amateur and professional astronomy. Easily photographed and viewed by smaller telescopes, this celestial beauty is studied extensively in a range of wavelengths by large ground- and space-based observatories. This Hubble composite image shows visible starlight as well as light from the emission of glowing hydrogen, which is associated with the most luminous young stars in the spiral arms. Core of Galaxy NGC 253  The core of the nearest starburst spiral galaxy, NGC 253, reveals violent star formation within a region 1,000 light-years across. A starburst galaxy has an exceptionally high rate of star birth, first identified by its excess of infrared radiation from warm dust. NGC 1512  NGC 1512 is a barred spiral galaxy in the southern constellation of Horologium. Located 30 million light years away, relatively "nearby" as galaxies go, it is bright enough to be seen with amateur telescopes. The galaxy spans 70,000 light years, nearly as much as our own Milky Way galaxy.
Birth of Stars in Galactic Wreckage  The photograph, shows a tumultuous collision between four galaxies located 1 billion light-years from Earth. The galactic car wreck is creating a torrent of new stars. The tangled up galaxies, called IRAS 19297-0406, are crammed together in the center of the picture. IRAS 19297-0406 is part of a class of galaxies known as ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs). ULIRGs are considered the progenitors of massive elliptical galaxies. The Galaxy Cluster Abell 2218  Abell 2218 is a rich galaxy cluster composed of thousands of galaxies and a mass equivalent to ten thousand galaxies interspersed throughout the cluster. The cluster is located relatively nearby - at a distance of 2 billion light-years. Stephan's Quintet - A Mammoth Cosmic Collision  The central part of Stephan's Quintet, giving a magnificent view of a gigantic cosmic collision. Weird, highly distorted features, dust lanes crossing between galaxies and long filaments of stars and gas extending far beyond the central regions all suggest galaxies twisted by violent encounters. The galaxies float through space, distorted shapes moulded by tidal interactions, weaving together in the intricate figures of an immense cosmic dance, choreographed by gravity.
View of Two Galaxy Neighbors: M81 and M82  This ground-based image of M81 (left) and M82 (right) was taken by Robert Gendler with a 12 inch telescope from a suburb outside Hartford, Connecticut. The distance between the two popular galaxies is 37 arc-minutes (approximately a moon diameter. Hyperactive Galaxy NGC 7673  The galaxy NGC 7673 is located in the constellation of Pegasus at an approximate distance of 150 million light-years. Telltale patches of blue light are signs of the formation of millions of new stars in the tangled spiral galaxy NGC 7673. Each of the bluish areas in this image consists of immense star clusters containing thousands of young stars. These clusters lie on the spiral arms of NGC 7673 and so emphasise its somewhat ragged look. This image, also shows two other galaxies seen in the background. These galaxies are further away and so appear redder, due to their higher redshift, an effect caused by the expansion of the Universe. The youngest blue stars in NGC 7673 are blazing with intense ultraviolet radiation. Each star cluster radiates 100 times more ultraviolet light than the famous Tarantula Nebula (30 Doradus), the largest star-forming region known in the local group of galaxies. Black hole hurtling across the plane of the Milky Way  Artist's impression shows an oblique view of our Milky Way galaxy. The black-hole system GRO J1655-40 is streaking through space at a rate of 400,000 kilometers per hour - 4 times faster than the average velocity of the stars in the galactic neighborhood. The yellow star is our Sun.
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