Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
Explanation: If you like slow dances , then this may be one for you. A single turn in this dance takes several hundred million years . Two galaxies, NGC 5394 and NGC 5395, slowly whirl about each other in a gravitational interaction that sets off a flourish of sparks in the form of new stars . The featured image, taken with the Gemini North 8-meter telescope on Maunakea , Hawaii , USA , combines four different colors . Emission from hydrogen gas , colored red, marks stellar nurseries where new stars drive the evolution of the galaxies . Also visible are dark dust lanes that mark gas that will eventually become stellar nurseries . If you look carefully you will see many more galaxies in the background , some involved in their own slow cosmic dance s. Web designed by Simon G. Kupisz, 2020
