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PIA11828: Galaxies Collide to Create Hot, Huge Galaxy
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and Hubble Space Telescope combined to make this image of a pair of colliding galaxies called NGC 6240 shows them in a rare, short-lived phase of their evolution just before they merge into a single, larger galaxy.
 Target Name:  NGC 6240
 Mission:  Spitzer Space Telescope 
 Instrument:  IRAC 
 Product Size:  3921 x 3805 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  California Institute of Technology 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA11828.tif (44.76 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA11828.jpg (1.418 MB)  

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:

This image of a pair of colliding galaxies called NGC 6240 shows them in a rare, short-lived phase of their evolution just before they merge into a single, larger galaxy. The prolonged, violent collision has drastically altered the appearance of both galaxies and created huge amounts of heat turning NGC 6240 into an "infrared luminous" active galaxy.

A rich variety of active galaxies, with different shapes, luminosities and radiation profiles exist. These galaxies may be related astronomers have suspected that they may represent an evolutionary sequence. By catching different galaxies in different stages of merging, a story emerges as one type of active galaxy changes into another. NGC 6240 provides an important "missing link" in this process.

This image was created from combined data from the infrared array camera of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope at 3.6 and 8.0 microns (red) and visible light from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (green and blue).

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/STScI-ESA

Image Addition Date:
2009-03-16