New Image Reveals Hundreds of Galaxies Colliding with One Another in 'Visible' Radio Waves

The Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) has captured a spectacular, detailed image of one of the most fascinating regions of the universe. It's taken a picture of an area where clusters of hundreds of galaxies are colliding with one another, creating a rich variety of mysterious phenomena that are only visible to radio telescopes.

In this latest effort, researchers took advantage of the new VLA capabilities to make a "true color" radio image. This image shows the region of space as it would appear if human eyes were sensitive to radio waves instead of light waves. In this latest picture, red shows where longer radio waves predominate, and blue shows where shorter radio waves predominate. This follows the same pattern we see in visible light.

The image actually reveals a number of strange features which the researchers believe are linked to an ongoing collision of galaxy clusters. Called Abell 2256, the region is about 800 million light-years from Earth and this latest image covers an area of the sky almost as large as the full moon.

"The image reveals details of the interactions between the two merging clusters and suggests that previously unexpected processes are at work in such encounters," said Frazer Owen, one of the researchers, in a news release.

The new image and the new details shown may tell scientists a bit more about what's occurring within this region of space. As the galaxies collide, researchers can learn a bit more about what occurs to the galaxies and how they merge.

The findings are published in the Astrophysical Journal.

For more great science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).