Awesome.
From Space.com...
A pair of interacting galaxies called Arp 147 was captured by Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. One of the galaxies (left-most galaxy shown) is relatively undisturbed, apart from a smooth ring of starlight. The other galaxy (right-most in image) exhibits a clumpy, blue ring of intense star formation. Credit: NASA, ESA and M. Livio (STScI).
From MSNBC...
Mission officials suggested that the image is a perfect "10." It shows that the observatory's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 is working exactly as it did before going offline.
The blue ring was formed after the galaxy on the left passed through the galaxy on the right. Just as a pebble thrown into a pond creates outwardly moving circular waves, or ripples, an outwardly propagating ring of higher density was generated at the point of impact of the two galaxies, astronomers explained. This excess density collided with outer material that was moving inward due to the gravitational pull of the two galaxies. That resulted in shocks that compressed the galaxies' interstellar gas, stimulating star formation.
The dusty reddish knot at the lower left of the blue ring probably marks the location of the original nucleus of the galaxy that was hit.
As I noted in a previous post, I may not be religious, but I am spiritual. This is an example of why, Simply awesome.
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