Caught in a galactic romance 💞⁣

Caught in a galactic romance :

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Cosmic collisions happen when galaxies are so close to each other that their mutual gravitational pull draws them together. Although these interactions happen over the course of millions and millions of years, our Hubble Space Telescope has helped us observe these galaxy mergers in progress.⁣

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The interacting galaxies, in order, as you swipe through the images, UGC 3912, LEDA 60847, Arp 295, and Arp 140 show signs that they're currently merging with a neighboring galaxy or are in the aftermath of a merger. Other signs of these mergers are the appearance of multiple nuclei from different galaxies that have come together—and even "tail" structures coming out from the galaxy itself, the result of galaxies gravitationally interacting with each other.⁣

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Check out @NASAHubble for more information and the full #CosmicCollisions collection of images. ⁣

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Image description: A collection of images depicting colliding galaxies, as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope. Some galaxies appear distorted out of their original shape and look like clouds of gas and dust. Spiral arms have been pulled apart from spiral galaxies and some galaxies have been formed into a cosmic streamer. Shades of blue, pink. and white dominate the galaxies. Smaller galaxies and stars are seen in the background with the darkness of space. ⁣

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Image 1 Credit: NASA, ESA, and C. Kilpatrick (Northwestern University); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)⁣

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Image 2 credit: NASA, ESA, A. Barth (University of California - Irvine), M. Koss (Eureka Scientific Inc.), and A. Robinson (Rochester Institute of Technology); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)⁣

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Image 3 credit: NASA, ESA, J. Dalcanton (University of Washington), and R. Windhorst (Arizona State University); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)⁣