Here's a rare look at the universe's version of a highway 64-car pileup. Researchers using data from a have spied a formation of three separate galaxies in the process of merging, or at least of barging through one another.
Double-galaxy mergers aren't exactly a dime a dozen, but have been spotted by astronomers numerous times. This triple-shot event isn't unprecedented, but it's rare enough to give the researchers a thrill.
For now, they're dubbing their observation "The Bird," seeing the top as the head, with wings outstretched to the left and right (although they admit in the press release that it looks a bit like Tinker Bell, as well).
Using original, dust-obscured Hubble images, researchers had made out two of the galaxies in the formation, a barred spiral, and a more irregular galaxy. Using adaptive optics filters on the European Organization for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere's (ESO) Very Large Telescope allowed them to spot the third, another irregular galaxy.
Other subsequent observations using the Southern African Large
Telescope, and infrared data from the NASA Spitzer Space Telescope confirmed those results, and indicated that the third galaxy is in fact cruising through the system at the breakneck speed of nearly .9 million miles per hour – far faster than is typically the case for merging galaxies.
(Image: Merger of three galaxies, a formation known as IRAS 19115-2124 . Credit: ESO)
