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Tengrinews.kz - NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has captured an incredibly colorful scene of two spiral galaxies merging, 250 million light years away.
The galaxy merger is known to have occurred in the constellation Serpens. These two cosmic giants, which collided about 700 million years ago, caused a real "star boom," giving birth to more than 200 giant star clusters in a cloud of gas 5000 light-years across.
"The collision of the two spiral galaxies happened about 700 million years ago, sparking an enormous burst of star formation. About 200 huge star clusters reside in a packed, dusty region about 5000 light-years across — about 5% of the Milky Way’s diameter. The amount of gas in this tiny region is equal to all of the gas in the entire Milky Way," NASA wrote in the Instagram post.
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The image, taken in infrared and X-ray light, shows a super-luminous galaxy surrounded by a soft pink cloud of X-ray gas. The center of the image is occupied by a bright golden-white dot, and the gas cloud itself resembles cotton candy with barely noticeable orange veins that add mystery and beauty to the picture. Around this cloud are other stars and galaxies, which appear as small dots or ovals against the dark background of space.
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