Hubble spots spiral bridge of young stars linking 2 ancient galaxies NASAs Hubble Space Telescope has photographed an unusual structure 100,000 light-years long, which resembles a corkscrew-shaped string of pearls and winds around the cores of two colliding galaxies. The unique structure of the star spiral may yield new insights into the formation of stellar superclusters that result from merging galaxies and gas dynamics in this rarely seen process. >>We were surprised to find this stunning morphology. Weve long known that the beads on a string phenomenon is seen in the arms of spiral galaxies and in tidal bridges between interacting galaxies. However, this particular supercluster arrangement has never been seen before in giant merging elliptical galaxies >>Young, blue super star clusters are evenly spaced along the chain through the galaxies at separations of 3,000 light-yrs. The pair of elliptical galaxies is embedded deep inside the dense galaxy cluster known as SDSS J1531+3414. The clusters powerful gravity warps the images of background galaxies into blue streaks and arcs that give the illusion of being inside the cluster = gravitational lensing. >>The underlying physical processes that give rise to the string of pearls structure are related to the Jeans instability, ie when the internal pressure of an interstellar gas cloud is not strong enough to prevent gravitational collapse of a region filled with matter, resulting in star formation. Whatever the origin for this star-forming gas is, the result is awesome. Its very exciting. You cant find a mundane explanation for this hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2014/26/full/
Posted on: Thu, 10 Jul 2014 15:06:14 +0000
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