Hubble Spots Two Galaxies Close to Each Other
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Hubble spots two galaxies rubbing off on each other
Size is always relative, and that's especially true when it comes to outer space. We're tiny creatures, so we think of the Earth as this incredibly large thing, with our solar system being almost impossibly large. The size of our home galaxy, the Milky Way, is hard to wrap our heads around, so when we peer into space and spot a pair of galaxies cuddling up close to each other it's a difficult thing to grasp.
In this image captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, the cosmic feature known as Arp 293 is presented in gorgeous detail. Arp 293 is actually two separate galaxies that have drifted so close to one another that they've begun to share some of their material.
The two galaxies that makeup Arp 293 are NGC 6285 (on the left in the image) and NGC 6286 (on the right). From our point of view, they're sitting virtually side-by-side. They're far closer to one another than many galaxies we can observe from Earth, and while they're still separated by many millions of light-years, their respective gravitational pulls are acting on the other.
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