Free Astronomy Magazine May-June 2021

48 MAY-JUNE 2021 ASTRO PUBLISHING Hubble showcases six galaxy mergers T o celebrate a new year, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Tele- scope has published a mon- tage of six beautiful galaxy mergers. Each of these merging systems was studied as part of the recent HiPEEC survey to investigate the rate of new star formation within such systems. These interactions are a key aspect of galaxy evolution and are among the most spectacular events in the lifetime of a galaxy. It is during rare merging events that galaxies undergo dramatic changes in their appearance and in their stel- lar content. These systems are excel- lent laboratories to trace the forma- tion of star clusters under extreme physical conditions. The Milky Way typically forms star clusters with masses that are 10 thousand times the mass of our Sun. This doesn’t compare to the masses of the star clusters forming in collid- ing galaxies, which can reach mil- lions of times the mass of our Sun. These dense stellar systems are also very luminous. Even after the colli- sion, when the resulting galactic system begins to fade into a more quiescent phase, these very massive by NASA/ESA Bethany Downer NGC 3256 NGC 3690 NGC 6052 NGC 1614