All about Astronomy Thread - Our Expanding Universe: Age, History & Other Facts

This image shows a small section of the Veil Nebula, as it was observed by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This section of the outer shell of the famous supernova remnant is in a region known as NGC 6960 or — more colloquially — the Witch’s Broom Nebula.
Image credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage Team

 

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Hickson Compact Group 31 (abbreviated to HCG 31 and also known as NGC 1741 Group) is a group of interacting galaxies, located at a distance of 166 million light years in the constellation of Eridanus.
The group is a small and compact group that is 150,000 light years across and it consists of eight members. The two main members of the group are two dwarf galaxies known as NGC 1741A and NGC 1741B, and it also includes six irregular dwarf companions.
The strong interaction of these galaxies has triggered massive star formation in the region. Due to this, the galaxies contain numerous supermassive stars that emit immensely in the ultraviolet, they are responsible for the glowing of the galaxies. Such galaxies are known as Wolf-Rayet galaxies, due to the high number of Wolf-Rayet stars they contain.
The oldest clusters that are present are 10 billion years old, while the age of the youngest cluster is around 10 million years. The process will continue over the next billion of years, resulting in the formation of new stellar clusters, until their merge will lead to one large elliptical galaxy.
Such galactic systems were dominant during the earlier stages of the universe, thus they are usually observable at much greater distances. Its proximity offers a great opportunity to study galactic interactions and assembly, together with extensive starbursts.
Image: Composite optical image of HCG 31 taken with the Hubble Space Telescope. On the mid-left side of the image, the severely distorted object is NGC 1741 (A & B). Due to the strong interaction, numerous blue star clusters have been formed in the streams of debris that were pulled away from the galaxies. The same also applies at the site of the collision. The elongated object above NGC 1741, is another pair of interacting galaxies of the group. A bridge of stars connects the two pairs. Finally, a stream of star clusters points to the fourth member of the group, on the lower right. Note that the bright object in the centre is a foreground star.
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, J. English (University of Manitoba) and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA). Acknowledgment: S. Gallagher

 

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Tadpole Galaxy (Arp 188).
The Tadpole Galaxy's most dramatic feature is a 280,000 light-years long 'tail' of stars, which gives it an appearance of a tadpole or a runaway pinwheel firework racing through space. This galaxy is a disrupted barred spiral galaxy located about 400 million light years away toward the Draco constellation. Gravitational attraction from another galaxy might have created its 'tail.'

 

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Jupiter’s iconic Great Red Spot is a giant storm bigger than our home planet Earth that has raged for hundreds of years.