Astronomy Shares 08.12.2013

Yes, it's been a while for me. Frankly, I've missed sharing astronomy images and writing about them. It would be more accurate to say I've missed writing. I've been saving up things to write about for a week, and I'm finally getting ready for today.

I couldn't find the right name for these kinds of posts. You've probably noticed. Eventually, I created a subcategory under the Astronomy category called Astronomy Posts, and that's how I chose to name it. Now, let's get to today's posts.

These two galaxies are known as Arp 147. They lie 450 million light-years away from us. A few hundred million years ago, these two galaxies began to approach each other thanks to their gravitational attraction, performing a tango dance. In other words, they would approach, then recede, then reappear, eventually merging into a single galaxy, just as will happen to the Andromeda and Milky Way galaxies approximately 4-5 billion years later. Before this event, one of these two galaxies was a spiral galaxy, the other an elliptical. This ring-shaped galaxy emerged after one galaxy passed through the other. During this collision, millions of very massive stars—and these massive stars would exhaust their fuel within a few hundred million years and explode as supernovas—defined the ring galaxy, composed of blue stars.

Here's one of my favorite nebulae: the Horsehead Nebula. Located 1,500 light-years away, this nebula, composed of cold gas, is one of the best-known and perhaps most beautiful nebulas. First discovered by Williamina Fleming in 1888, it has become one of the most well-known nebulas.

As you can see, it appears darker when viewed with normal visible light. But even this image could be much more beautiful, in my opinion. Who could question the beauty of this nebula? Sure, we can make it look like a horse's head if we try a little harder, but that doesn't affect its beauty.