Astronomers using the Gemini North telescope, one of the twin telescopes of the International Gemini Observatory, have captured a stunning image of a pair of interacting spiral galaxies, NGC 4568 and NGC 4567, which will eventually combine to form a single elliptical galaxy in around 500 million years.
This image from the Gemini North telescope shows a pair of interacting spiral galaxies: NGC 4568 (bottom) and NGC 4567 (top). Image credit: International Gemini Observatory / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / T.A. Rector, University of Alaska Anchorage & NSF’s NOIRLab / J. Miller, Gemini Observatory & NSF’s NOIRLab / M. Zamani, NSF’s NOIRLab / D. de Martin, NSF’s NOIRLab.
NGC 4567 and NGC 4568 are a duo of unbarred spiral galaxies some 60 million light-years away in the constellation of Virgo.
Nicknamed the Butterfly Galaxies and the Siamese Twins, these galaxies are beginning to collide and merge into each other.
At present, the centers of NGC 4567 and NGC 4568 are 20,000 light-years apart and each galaxy still retains its original, pinwheel shape.
As these galaxies draw together and coalesce, their dueling gravitational forces will trigger bursts of intense stellar formation and wildly distort their once-majestic structures.
Over millions of years, the galaxies will repeatedly swing past each other in ever-tightening loops, drawing out long streamers of stars and gas until their individual structures are so thoroughly mixed that a single, essentially spherical, galaxy emerges from the chaos.
By that point, much of the gas and dust in this system will have been used up or blown away.
This merger is also a preview of what will happen when the Milky Way and its closest large galactic neighbor the Andromeda Galaxy collide in about 5 billion years.
A bright region in the center of one of NGC 4568’s sweeping spiral arms is the fading afterglow of a supernova — known as SN 2020fqv — that was detected in 2020.
By combining decades of observations and computer modeling, astronomers now have compelling evidence that merging spiral galaxies like these go on to become elliptical galaxies.
It is likely that NGC 4568 and NGC 4567 will eventually resemble their neighbor Messier 89, an elliptical galaxy that also resides in the Virgo Cluster.
