Two spiral galaxies caught in the act of colliding and merging, with two long tidal tails like an insect’s antennae.
You see the Antennae Galaxies as they were about 70 million years ago.
| Across | 107,500 light-years |
|---|---|
| Distance from us | about 70 million light-years |
| How big it looks | about 5.2 arcminutes — the full Moon is about 30 |
We use about 70 million light-years, from the tip of the red-giant branch (Jang & Lee 2015). An earlier study’s 43.38 million (Saviane et al. 2008) is now thought to have measured the wrong stars.
The Milky Wayspiral galaxyNaked eye
The Andromeda Galaxy (M31)spiral galaxyNaked eyeThe Triangulum Galaxy (M33)spiral galaxyBinoculars
The Large Magellanic Cloudirregular galaxyNaked eyeBode’s Galaxy (M81)spiral galaxyBinocularsThe Whirlpool Galaxy (M51)spiral galaxy150 mm telescope
Show the Antennae Galaxies in the model
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