                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                              2022 February 19

                        Peculiar Galaxies of Arp 273
                   Image Credit & Copyright: Jason Guenzel

   Explanation: The spiky stars in the foreground of this backyard
   telescopic frame are well within our own Milky Way Galaxy. But the two
   eye-catching galaxies lie far beyond the Milky Way, at a distance of
   over 300 million light-years. Their distorted appearance is due to
   gravitational tides as the pair engage in close encounters. Cataloged
   as Arp 273 (also as UGC 1810), the galaxies do look peculiar, but
   interacting galaxies are now understood to be common in the universe.
   Nearby, the large spiral Andromeda Galaxy is known to be some 2 million
   light-years away and approaching the Milky Way. The peculiar galaxies
   of Arp 273 may offer an analog of their far future encounter. Repeated
   galaxy encounters on a cosmic timescale can ultimately result in a
   merger into a single galaxy of stars. From our perspective, the bright
   cores of the Arp 273 galaxies are separated by only a little over
   100,000 light-years.

                 Tomorrow's picture: aurora over white dome
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