Gemini Press Release
A Galactic Dance
“Everything is determined… by forces over which we have no control.
… Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious
tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper.”
— Albert Einstein
Figure 1.
Image of the interacting
galaxy pair NGC 5394/5
(also known as the Heron
Galaxy) obtained with
NSF’s National Optical-
Infrared Astronomy
Research Laboratory’s
Gemini North 8-meter
telescope on Hawaii’s
Maunakea using the
Gemini Multi-Object
Spectrograph in imaging
mode. This four-color
composite image has a
total exposure time of 42
minutes. North is up.
Credit: Gemini
Observatory/NSF’s
National Optical-Infrared
Astronomy Research
Laboratory/AURA
Galaxies lead a graceful existence on cosmic timescales. Over millions of years, they can en-
gage in elaborate dances that produce some of nature’s most exquisite and striking grand
designs. Few are as captivating as the galactic duo known as NGC 5394/5, sometimes nick-
named the Heron Galaxy. The image in Figure 1, obtained by the Gemini Observatory of
NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory, captures a snapshot of this
compelling interacting pair.
14
GeminiFocus
January 2020