The Hubble Space Telescope keeps releasing incredible images of the great beyond.

The most recent is a shot showing a pair of colliding galaxies 230 million lightyears away.

The galaxies in the shot were first discovered by William Herschel in 1784. He believed the object was one galaxy, but that was disproved as technology advanced.

Instead of a single galaxy, the latest image from Hubble shows a clear picture of two galaxies merging under the influence of gravity.

Here’s Gizmodo:

Galactic collisions are a common event in the lifespan of galaxies. Scientists have hypothesized that our neighboring Andromeda galaxy experienced mergers of its own in its past, for example.

Perhaps the newest view of NGC 6052 will give you some hope for the future. Our own Milky Way is destined to collide with the Andromeda galaxy, according to astronomers’ simulations. That collision won’t happen for four billion years or so, but it would also be an incredible spectacle. Unfortunately, at that point, the Sun will probably be too bright for Earth to support life.

That last bit was a tad depressing, so let’s move on to something else that’s pretty cool.

In the video below, space becomes “sonified” in this visualisation of a cluster of galaxies imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope.

Time flows left to right, and the frequency of sound changes from bottom to top, ranging from 30 to 1 000 Hertz. Objects near the bottom of the image produce lower notes, while those near the top produce higher ones.

Most of the visible specks are galaxies housing numerous stars, and a few individual stars shine brightly in the foreground.

Stars and compact galaxies create short, clear tones, while sprawling spiral galaxies emit longer notes that change pitch. The higher density of galaxies near the centre of the image — the heart of this galaxy cluster, known as RXC J0142.9+4438 — results in a swell of mid-range tones halfway through the video:

You can also check in on space every now and then by clicking play on the live feed from the International Space Station:

Keep up the good work, NASA.

[source:gizmodo]