The two galaxies shown above are NGC 3227 and NGC 3226. The two are commonly known as Arp 94 and can be found in the area of about 50 to 60 million from Earth. Although you can’t see it clearly in the picture, there are streams of gas and tiny dust with two galaxies trapped in a single dance.
A beautiful picture and just another reminder of how many different galaxies there are. NASA says Hubble took pictures as part of a study to measure the number of black holes. The idea was to measure the size of black holes in galaxies by looking at the gas potential in the center.
You can see the Galaxy NGC 3227 on the left. It is a giant orbiting galaxy known as the Seyfert galaxy. Like our Milky Way galaxy, it has a massive black hole in the center of its center. To the right is NGC 3226, the elliptical galaxy NASA believes previously ate the third galaxy in space.
Even though the two galaxies are closed to dance, there is also an interest in star formation in NGC 3226.
NASA says NGC 3226 should make new stars based on all we know. All the energy and waste from the previous galaxy goes directly into it. But, based on a 2014 study, that doesn’t seem to be the case here.
Even with those two galaxies locked up in dance and the NGC 3226 consuming that old energy, its star formation is shallow. Instead, something falling on NGC 3226 collided with another galactic gas, and thus, NASA says it eliminates new star formation instead of exacerbating it.
It is an exciting discovery, and it only raises additional questions about how galaxies form new stars. NASA believes that NGC 3226 is transitioning from a small, active galaxy known as “blue” to the old “red” universe.
NASA plans to study this “galaxy dance” for more clues about the transition from small galaxies to galaxies. Also, people with NASA’s Herschel Science Center believe that it could start making stars again one day.
