In the vast cosmic images captured through the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru
Strategic Program (HSC-SSP), a large-scale survey spanning 330 nights of
Subaru Telescope operations starting in 2014 and lasting over seven
years, many interacting or colliding galaxies are captured, affecting
each other’s shapes through mutual gravitation. Interacting galaxies
have a wide variety of shapes; one galaxy pair looks like a jellyfish, and the other looks like a penguin holding an egg.
This image shows a pair of interacting galaxies in the Hydra constellation. The galaxy resembling a penguin is NGC 2936, which is thought to be distorted by the strong gravity of NGC 2937, an elliptical galaxy in the lower left of the penguin that looks like an egg. The pair are jointly known as Arp 142.
NGC 2936 is a distorted spiral galaxy. The brightest part, resembling a penguin's eye, is the center of the galaxy. The blueish areas of the galaxy, looking like the penguin's beak and outline, contain many newly formed stars induced by gravity interactions, and newborn stars emit blue light. In contrast, the elliptical, egg-like galaxy looks red or orangish due to the dominance of old stars.
The fuzzy features surrounding the penguin show gravitational interaction events between the two galaxies. A small-aperture telescope cannot capture these faint features, but the Subaru Telescope, with its 8.2-meter primary mirror, successfully detected them. Additionally, Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC), the ultra-wide field of view camera, captured a faint feature apart from the penguin in the upper-left direction. Credit: NAOJ)
This image shows a pair of interacting galaxies in the Hydra constellation. The galaxy resembling a penguin is NGC 2936, which is thought to be distorted by the strong gravity of NGC 2937, an elliptical galaxy in the lower left of the penguin that looks like an egg. The pair are jointly known as Arp 142.
NGC 2936 is a distorted spiral galaxy. The brightest part, resembling a penguin's eye, is the center of the galaxy. The blueish areas of the galaxy, looking like the penguin's beak and outline, contain many newly formed stars induced by gravity interactions, and newborn stars emit blue light. In contrast, the elliptical, egg-like galaxy looks red or orangish due to the dominance of old stars.
The fuzzy features surrounding the penguin show gravitational interaction events between the two galaxies. A small-aperture telescope cannot capture these faint features, but the Subaru Telescope, with its 8.2-meter primary mirror, successfully detected them. Additionally, Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC), the ultra-wide field of view camera, captured a faint feature apart from the penguin in the upper-left direction. Credit: NAOJ)
Distance from Earth: About 330 million light-years
Instrument: Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC)
