Free Astronomy Magazine May-June 2022

51 ASTRO PUBLISHING glowing gas clouds enshrouding young, massive star clusters. Although most of the action is hap- pening in NGC 2445, it doesn’t mean the other member of the interacting pair has escaped unscathed. The gravitational tussle has stretched NGC 2444 into an odd shape, yank- ing gas far from the galaxy. NGC 2444 contains old stars and no new starbirth because it lost its gas long ago, well before this galactic en- counter. Aside from the star forma- tion in NGC 2445, another inte- resting feature that Hubble has un- covered is the dark filaments of gas in the starburst galaxy’s bright core. Those features may have been formed by outbursts of material. Radio observations reveal a power- ful source in the core that may be spearheading the outbursts. The radio source may have been pro- duced by intense star formation or a black hole gobbling up material flowing into the centre. It’s not uncommon for star forma- tion to occur in the cores of galaxies, driven by interactions. Plenty of gas from galactic encounters flows into