Why the stars in this photo have been fooling us Earthlings all along.
This may look like one galaxy, but looks can be deceiving.
About 230 million light-years away, something pretty remarkable is happening in the constellation Hercules.
Well, at least it was happening 230 million years ago ... you know how messy time and distance get when you're talkin' space stuff.
GIF from "Doctor Who."
I say it's "happening" because — despite what the photo below may imply — you're not actually looking at a singular object or spacial body, but rather, "utter chaos," as Gizmodo described it.
This picture captures galaxy NGC 6052, which is actually two completely different galaxies colliding.
Photo by European Space Agency/Hubble & NASA, Judy Schmidt.
The photo, snapped by NASA and the European Space Agency's (ESA) Hubble Telescope, was shared online on Dec. 30, 2015, and has since sent the Internet abuzz.
Here's a snippet of what the space groups had to say about NGC 6052:
"It would be reasonable to think of this as a single abnormal galaxy, and it was originally classified as such. However, it is in fact a 'new' galaxy in the process of forming. Two separate galaxies have been gradually drawn together, attracted by gravity, and have collided. We now see them merging into a single structure."
That’s right — gravity is pulling together two galaxies we previously thought were just one uniquely formed galaxy. (Verrry sneaky, NGC 6052.)
As you might expect, this process is causing major changes for those galaxies' stars and the planets that revolve around them, which are being (or will be) thrown out of their orbits and cast into brand new ones.
When the new galaxy finally settles down, the newly formed arrangement may not even resemble either of the two formers.
The craziest thing about what's happening over in Hercules? It'll be happening right here to our Milky Way, too.
Galaxy mergers are fairly common throughout the universe, as Space.com pointed out. And, in about 4 billion years, we'll have some firsthand experience with the phenomenon, too — well, you know ... assuming humans are still around then. (What year would that be? 4000002016?)
As I type, our galaxy, the Milky Way, is on a collision course with our neighbor Andromeda.
This is what the beginning stages of that merger will look like, according to NASA:
Illustration of what the Andromeda (left) and Milky Way (right) collision is expected to look like right before the encounter — about 3.75 billion years from now. Photo illustration by NASA; ESA; Z. Levay, and R. van der Marel, STScl; T. Hallas and A. Mellinger.
So ... should you be freaking out right now? Nah. Not only will this happen way past our lifetimes, but the verdict's still out on if Earth would even be affected that much — as dramatic as the above pic may appear.
"It is likely the sun will be flung into a new region of our galaxy," NASA explained. "But our Earth and solar system are in no danger of being destroyed."
The main takeaway? Galaxies may come and go...
...but space science will be cool forever.