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NGC 4438 & NGC 4435: Galactic Fender-Bender In Virgo
This Chandra image shows multimillion degree gas in two
galaxies in the Virgo galaxy cluster that are now more than 100,000
light years apart. In NGC 4438, the larger galaxy in the
lower part of the image, filaments of hot gas have been pulled to
the right of the galaxy. The hot gas in the smaller galaxy, NGC 4435
(upper right), is concentrated around its central region.
Combined X-ray, optical, and radio observations indicate
that the two galaxies bumped into each other in the relatively
recent past, about 100 million years ago. The collision was
apparently a glancing one, in which the galaxies came within about
16,000 light years of each other. Such collisions are relatively
common in the crowded confines of the Virgo galaxy cluster. The
center of the cluster contains hundreds of galaxies whizzing around
at speeds of millions of miles per hour.
During the encounter between NGC4438 and
NGC 4435, gravitational tidal forces tugged at the gas and stars on
the outer parts of the galaxies. NGC 4438 was damaged in the
collision, but the hot gas will probably fall back into the disk of
the galaxy in a few hundred million years. NGC 4435, being less
massive than NGC 4438, proved to be less crash worthy and appears to
have lost most of its hot gas to intergalactic space.
Fast Facts for NGC 4438
& NGC 4435: |
Credit |
NASA/CXC/M.Machacek et al.
|
Scale |
Image is 397 x 553 arcsec.
|
Category |
Normal
Galaxies & Starburst Galaxies Groups
& Clusters of Galaxies |
Coordinates
(J2000) |
RA 12h 27m 45.60s | Dec +13º
00' 32.00" |
Constellation |
Virgo
|
Observation
Date |
January 29, 2002 |
Observation
Time |
6.9 hours |
Obs.
ID |
2883 |
Color
Code |
Energy (Red 0.3-1.5 keV,
Green 1.5-2.5 keV, Blue 2.5-6.0 keV) |
Instrument |
ACIS
|
Distance
Estimate |
50 million light years |
Reference |
M. Machacek et al. 2003
submitted to the Astrophys. J. | |
Chandra
Images: ' 05 |
' 04
| ' 03
| ' 02
| ' 01
| ' 00
| ' 99
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