Tsunami of Stars and Gas Produces Dazzling Eye-shaped Feature in Galaxy - NRAO: Revealing the Hidden Universe
https://public.nrao.edu/news/pressreleases/2016-alma-eyelid
Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have discovered a tsunami of stars and gas that is crashing midway through the disk
of a spiral galaxy known as IC 2163. This colossal wave of material – which was triggered when IC 2163 recently sideswiped another spiral galaxy dubbed NGC 2207 –
produced dazzling arcs of intense star formation that resemble a pair of eyelids.
“Although galaxy collisions of this type are not uncommon, only a few galaxies with eye-like, or ocular, structures are known to exist,” said Michele Kaufman,
an astronomer formerly with The Ohio State University in Columbus and lead author on a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal.