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$Photograph of two interacting galaxies merging into a single large, glowing white-gray, wing-shaped structure at center, with tidal arcs sweeping to the left and a bright knot of overlapping material at right. Thin orange-brown dust lanes and pink-red star-forming regions trace through the brighter parts. Many white, blue, and orange stars, some with long vertical blue diffraction streaks, and numerous small background galaxies are scattered across the dark field.$

Galaxies, Science

What would happen if a planet crashed into the Sun?

Picture of the Day

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A wide field of swirling red and orange nebulosity fills most of the frame, crossed by darker dust lanes. A small, bright teal arc stands out near the upper left, and myriad faint stars are scattered across the scene.

Hot gas in Cygnus

Egidio Vergani, taken from Campo Cecina, Carrara, Italy

LBN 182, a nebula in Cygnus, surrounds the Wolf-Rayet star WR 134 some 6,000 light-years away; the star’s powerful wind is blowing a faint bubble into the surrounding gas, visible at upper left as a bright blue shock front. The imager took about 11 hours of exposure through with a 3.1-inch f/6 refractor and a dual-band Hα/OIII filter.