Hubble Showcases 6 Galaxy Mergers
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Hubble Showcases 6 Galaxy Mergers
To celebrate a new year, the NASA/ESA
Hubble Space Telescope has published a montage of six beautiful galaxy
mergers. Each of these merging systems was studied as part of the recent
HiPEEC survey to investigate the rate of new star formation within such
systems. These interactions are a key aspect of galaxy evolution and
are among the most spectacular events in the lifetime of a galaxy.
It
is during rare merging events that galaxies undergo dramatic changes in
their appearance and in their stellar content. These systems are
excellent laboratories to trace the formation of star clusters under
extreme physical conditions.
The Milky Way typically forms star clusters with masses
that are 10 thousand times the mass of our Sun. This doesn’t compare to
the masses of the star clusters forming in colliding galaxies, which can
reach millions of times the mass of our Sun.
These dense stellar systems are also very luminous. Even
after the collision, when the resulting galactic system begins to fade
into a more quiescent phase, these very massive star clusters will shine
throughout their host galaxy, as long-lasting witnesses of past merging
events.
By studying the six galaxy mergers shown here, the Hubble
imaging Probe of Extreme Environments and Clusters (HiPEEC) survey has
investigated how star clusters are affected during collisions by the
rapid changes that drastically increase the rate at which new stars are
formed in these galaxies. Hubble’s capabilities have made it possible to
resolve large star-forming “knots” into numerous compact young star
clusters. Hubble’s ultraviolet and near-infrared observations of these
systems have been used to derive star cluster ages, masses, and
extinctions and to analyse the star formation rate within these six
merging galaxies. The HiPEEC study reveals that the star cluster
populations undergo large and rapid variations in their properties, with
the most massive clusters formed towards the end of the merger phase.
Each of the merging systems shown here has been previously
published by Hubble, as early as 2008 and as recently as October 2020.
To celebrate it’s 18th anniversary in 2008, the Hubble Space Telescope
released a collection of 59 images of merging galaxies, which can be
explored here.
Source: ESA/Hubble/News
More Information
The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA.
The HiPEEC survey was completed as part of the Hubble Space Telescope program GO 14066 (PI: A. Adamo). A repository with the study’s final data and catalogues is available here in the MAST Archive.
The international team of astronomers in this study consists of A. Adamo, K. Hollyhead, M. Messa, J. E. Ryon, V. Bajaj, A. Runholm, A. Aalto, D. Calzeti, J. S. Gallagher, M. J. Hayes, J. M. D. Kruijssen, S. König, S. S. Larsen, J. Melinder, E. Sabbi, L. J. Smith, and G. Östlin.
Links
Contacts
Bethany Downer
ESA/Hubble Chief Communications Officer
Email: Bethany.Downer@esahubble.org
