Wednesday, February 15, 2012

‘Stealth Merger’ of Dwarf Galaxies Seen in New Images

‘Stealth Merger’ of Dwarf Galaxies Seen in New Images:

NGC449 and its smaller, fainter companion (upper right). Credit: Subaru Telescope, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ)

Space may be vast, but accidents can still happen, like when galaxies “collide,” usually resulting in the smaller one having its stars scattered by the larger one. New high-resolution images of two dwarf galaxies merging together have now been obtained by astronomers, providing a more detailed look at something which could only barely be seen before. While the larger galaxy of the two, NGC 4449, is easily visible, its smaller companion was little more than just a faint smudge until now.

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