WWW.ASTRONOMY.COM 7
A GHOSTLY
SPACE FACE
A look only
merging galaxies
could give.
What at first appears to be
a face with glowing eyes is
actually a unique moment in
time, captured by the Hubble
Space Telescope.
Galaxies grow and evolve
through collisions. Although
most smash-ups aren’t head-on,
Arp–Madore 2026–
apparently didn’t get the memo.
In June 2019, Hubble took this
visible-light snapshot of the
cosmic crash in progress.
The central regions, or bulges,
of the galaxies glow brightly like
a pair of supernatural eyes. Gas,
dust, and stars in the galaxies’
arms have been yanked around
by gravitational effects, forming
a huge, bluish ring structure
that serves as the head and nose.
Cosmically speaking, ring
structures like this don’t last
long — only about 100 million
years. As the merger progresses,
the face will distort into
unrecognizability. And in about
1 billion to 2 billion years,
the galaxies will have merged
completely. — ALISON KLESMANNEW LIFE
The nonprofit Yerkes
Future Foundation
will take ownership of
Yerkes Observatory,
which closed in 2018,
from the University of
Chicago. The foundation
aims to reopen the
historic observatory for
public outreach and
astronomical research.HEADED HOME
The Japan Aerospace
Exploration Agency’s
Hayabusa2 spacecraft
departed asteroid
Ryugu on November 13,
carrying along with it
several samples from
the rocky space object
for closer examination
by researchers back
home on Earth.SMART SPACE SUIT
A collaboration
between the NASA
Haughton Mars Project
and several research
organizations has
successfully tested
an astronaut smart
glove that will allow
explorers to wirelessly
operate equipment
using hand gestures.HOT
BYTESSNAPSHOT
QUANTUM GRAVITY
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