Credit: NRAO/AUI/NSF, Image copyright J. M. Uson (NRAO), observers J. J. Condon, G. Helou, T. H. Jarrett

The \"Taffy\" galaxies are the results of a collision between two galaxies, UGC 813 (right) and UGC 816 (left). They were normal disk galaxies before they collided face-on at a speed of one million miles per hour about 50 million years ago. The disks of stars and dense clouds of molecular gas passed through each other relatively unharmed and are now separating. Diffuse HI gas clouds were stopped between the galaxies or thrown out in long tails, shown in blue. Disk magnetic fields are anchored by dense molecular clouds and are being stretched like bands of taffy between the galaxies as they separate. This bridge produces the radio continuum emission depicted in red.

Provider: National Radio Astronomy Observatory

Image Source: https://public.nrao.edu/gallery/the-collision-of-ugc-813-and-ugc-816/

Curator: NRAO/AUI/NSF, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)