Two colliding spiral galaxies produce rare eyelid-shaped formations

Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), a high-resolution telescope in the Chilean Andes, astronomers have discovered a rare star formation. The structure, which looks remarkably like two eyelids, was produced by the grazing collision of two spiral galaxies. Far beyond our galaxy, a swirling stellar tsunami has created a pair of watchful cosmic eyes.

Lead author Michele Kaufman, an astronomer formerly with The Ohio State University in Columbus, said, “Finding one in such a newly formed state gives us an exceptional opportunity to study what happens when one galaxy grazes another.”

When IC 2163’s outer arm clipped NGC 2207’s spinning disk, the collision produced brilliant formations of stars, dust, and gas. Kaufman and colleagues spotted the two spiral galaxies some 114 million light-years from Earth, utilizing ALMA’s high sensitivity and resolution to track the movement of carbon monoxide gas at the intersection of the two.

New research suggests that gas from IC 2163’s outer “eyelid” is spiraling inward at over 100 kilometers per second. But the gas slows down as it approaches the center, and begins to follow the normal rotation of the galaxy.

To read more about the research, click here.