An image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope has shown a dramatic glimpse of a large and massive galaxy that is in the process of being built through the merger of smaller, lighter galaxies.
An image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope has shown a dramatic glimpse of a large and massive galaxy that is in the process of being built through the merger of smaller, lighter galaxies.
Astrophysicists believe that this is how galaxies grew in the young universe. Now the Hubble observations of the radio galaxy MRC 1138-262, also known as the "Spider's Web Galaxy" have shown dozens of satellite galaxies with a lot of star formation activity in the form of individual clumps participating in the merger process.
Since the galaxy is 10.6 billion light years away, the astronauts see it as it was in the early days, the creation days of the universe as we know it, only about 3 billion years after the big bang.
