Post #409

While this might be on a scale larger than the Winter Olympics, we love to see the magic that comes from two galaxies working together. Galaxies can merge, collide, or brush past one another — each of which has a significant impact on their shapes and structures. The subject of this image is named Arp 282, an interacting galaxy pair that is composed of the Seyfert galaxy NGC 169 (bottom) and the galaxy IC 1559 (top). Tidal forces occur when an object’s gravity causes another object to distort or stretch. The direction of the tidal forces will be away from the lower-mass object and towards the higher-mass object. When two galaxies interact, gas, dust, and even entire solar systems will be drawn away from one galaxy towards the other by these tidal forces. This process can actually be seen in action in this image — delicate streams of matter have formed, visibly linking the two galaxies.