Astr112 Photography Projects, Spring 2006

NGC 3395 and NGC 3396, Danny Dowell

This pair of interacting galaxies is found within the Leo Minor constellation. NGC 3396 (left) is an SB type galaxy while NGC 3395 is a SBc type galaxy. Ultraviolet readings indicate that there is massive star formation within these two galaxies. The two galaxies are interacting and believed to be merging. Astronomy theory suggest that these two galaxies will eventually reform a new elliptical galaxy. Astronomers believe that our Galaxy, the Milky Way, and Andromeda Galaxy will merge in a similar way in 5 billion years.

These picture depicts two galaxies slowly getting pulled in by each others mass. These two galaxies will eventually rip apart each other's structure. When the galaxies meet, stars from both galaxies will rush past each and then slowly be pulled back together by the pull of gravity. The galaxy will then slowly reform into an elliptical galaxy.

The two galaxies are approximately 85 million light years away. They have ~4 arcminutes separating their cores which indicates a the distance that separating them is a mere 98,000 light years. This indicates that they are extremely close as the main disk of the Milky Way galaxy in total is 80,000 to 100,000 light years in diameter. The light we see from these galaxies is of course very ancient and shows us what the galaxy looked like in the past. Because of this these galaxies are much further along in their process of merging.

References:
http://www.raben.com/web log/2006/04/17/ngc-33953396-arp-270/ http://www.kopernik.org/images/archive/n3395.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milky_way