PIX4612796: Interacting galaxies Arp 297 - Interacting galaxies Arp 297 - Arp 297 is located about 200 million light years away from Earth in the constellation Bovier. This pair of interacting galaxies consists of a large spiral galaxy, NGC 5754, and a small spiral galaxy, NGC 5752, in the left center of the image. This interaction causes intense star flames within the small galaxy. Image obtained with a telescope of 80 cm. This beautiful pair of interacting galaxies consists of NGC 5754, the large spiral in the center, and NGC 5752, the smaller companion to the left center of the image. NGC 5754's internal structure has hardly been disturbed by the interaction. NGC 5754 is located in the constellation Bootes, the Herdsman, some 200 million light - years away. Image taken with a 32 - inch Schulman Telescope (RC Optical Systems) / Bridgeman Images

PIX4612800: Spiral galaxy NGC 5775 - NGC 5775 is located about 85 million light years away from Earth in the galaxy cluster of Our Lady. Seen from the Earth, this spiral galaxy is presented by the slice, leaving only the thickness of its disc visible. Image obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope. This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the edge - on profile of the slender spiral galaxy NGC 5775. NGC 5775 is a member of the Virgo Cluster and lies at a distance of about 85 million light - years. This colour picture was created from images taken using the Wide Field Channel of Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys / Bridgeman Images

FLO4612805: White stork, Ciconia ciconia. Handcoloured copperplate drawn and engraved by Edward Donovan from his own “Natural History of British Birds,” London, 1794-1819. Edward Donovan (1768-1837) was an Anglo-Irish amateur zoologist, writer, artist and engraver. He wrote and illustrated a series of volumes on birds, fish, shells and insects, opened his own museum of natural history in London, but later he fell on hard times and died penniless., Donovan, Edward (1768-1837) / Bridgeman Images

FLO4612815: Common snipe, Gallinago gallinago, catching a worm. Handcoloured copperplate drawn and engraved by Edward Donovan from his own “Natural History of British Birds,” London, 1794-1819. Edward Donovan (1768-1837) was an Anglo-Irish amateur zoologist, writer, artist and engraver. He wrote and illustrated a series of volumes on birds, fish, shells and insects, opened his own museum of natural history in London, but later he fell on hard times and died penniless., Donovan, Edward (1768-1837) / Bridgeman Images

PIX4612831: Spiral galaxies NGC 5905 and NGC 5908 in the Dragon - NGC 5905 and NGC 5908 spiral galaxies in Draco - These galaxies are located approximately 140 million years ago - light in the constellation Dragon. NGC 5905, on the right, is a barree spiral galaxy, NGC 5908, a spiral galaxy seen from the edge. These galaxies are about 140 million light years in the constellation Draco. Right is the NGC 5905 barred spiral galaxy, left the edge - on NGC 5908 spiral galaxy / Bridgeman Images

PIX4612856: Spiral galaxy NGC 5907 in the Dragon - Spiral galaxy NGC 5907 in Draco - The galaxy NGC 5907 is about 35 million years away - light from Earth. In this image, traces left by the passage of a dwarf galaxy appear as a stellar current around this galaxy. Here is an extragalactic perspective of an extended stellar tidal stream wrapping around the edge - on, spiral galaxy NGC 5907. Our deep images reveal for the first time a large scale complex of arcing loops that is an excellent example of how a low - mass satellite accretion can produce a interweaved, rosette - like structure of debris dispersed in the halo of its host galaxy. The existence of this structure, which has probably survived for several Gigayears, confirms that halos of spiral galaxies in the Local Universe still contain a significant number of galactic fossils from their hierarchical formation. This edge - on spiral galaxy is located at 35 million light years away / Bridgeman Images

FLO4612879: Ruff, Philomachus pugnax, female. Handcoloured copperplate drawn and engraved by Edward Donovan from his own “Natural History of British Birds,” London, 1794-1819. Edward Donovan (1768-1837) was an Anglo-Irish amateur zoologist, writer, artist and engraver. He wrote and illustrated a series of volumes on birds, fish, shells and insects, opened his own museum of natural history in London, but later he fell on hard times and died penniless., Donovan, Edward (1768-1837) / Bridgeman Images

PIX4612894: Galaxies NGC 5981, NGC 5982 and NGC 5985 in the Dragon - Galaxies NGC 5981, NGC 5982 and NGC 5985 in Draco - This group of galaxies is located about 100 million years ago - light from Earth in the constellation of the Dragon. On the left, the spiral galaxy NGC 5985, in the center, the elliptical galaxy NGC 5982, on the right the spiral galaxy seen by the slice NGC 5981. This group of galaxies is located 100 million light years away. At left is the spiral galaxy NGC 5985, center is an elliptical galaxy NGC 5982, at right an edge - on spiral galaxy NGC 5981 / Bridgeman Images

FLO4612896: Common teal, Anas crecca, male. Handcoloured copperplate drawn and engraved by Edward Donovan from his own “Natural History of British Birds,” London, 1794-1819. Edward Donovan (1768-1837) was an Anglo-Irish amateur zoologist, writer, artist and engraver. He wrote and illustrated a series of volumes on birds, fish, shells and insects, opened his own museum of natural history in London, but later he fell on hard times and died penniless., Donovan, Edward (1768-1837) / Bridgeman Images

PIX4612914: Galaxy NGC 6384 in Ophiuchus - Galaxy NGC 6384 in Ophiuchus - The spiral galaxy NGC 6384, is located about 80 million years ago - light from Earth in the constellation Ophiuchus. Image obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced this finely detailed image of the beautiful spiral galaxy NGC 6384. This galaxy lies 80 million light years away in the constellation of Ophiuchus (The Serpent Bearer), not far from the centre of the Milky Way on the sky. The positioning of NGC 6384 means that we have to peer at it past many dazzling foreground Milky Way stars that are scattered across this image / Bridgeman Images

PIX4612917: Galaxy NGC 6240 in Ophiuchus - Galaxy NGC 6240 in Ophiuchus - The galaxy NGC 6240, is about 400 million light years away from Earth in the constellation Ophiuchus. This system consists of two colliding galaxies each with a central black hole; in several millions of years, they will form only one galaxy. Image obtained by the Hubble space telescope on 10 February 2002. NGC 6240 is a peculiar, butterfly - or lobster - shaped galaxy consisting of two smaller merging galaxies. It lies in the constellation of Ophiuchus, the Serpent Holder, some 400 million light - years away. Observations with NASA s Chandra X - ray Observatory have disclosed two giant black holes, about 3,000 light - years apart, which will drift towards one another and eventually merge together into a larger black hole. The merging process, which began about 30 million years ago, triggered dramatic star formation and sparked numerous supernova explosions. The merger will be complete in some tens to hundreds of millions of years. Image taken by the Hubble space telescope on February 10, 2002 / Bridgeman Images

FLO4612932: Golden oriole (female), Oriolus oriolus. Handcoloured copperplate drawn and engraved by Edward Donovan from his own “Natural History of British Birds,” London, 1794-1819. Edward Donovan (1768-1837) was an Anglo-Irish amateur zoologist, writer, artist and engraver. He wrote and illustrated a series of volumes on birds, fish, shells and insects, opened his own museum of natural history in London, but later he fell on hard times and died penniless., Donovan, Edward (1768-1837) / Bridgeman Images

PIX4612954: Galaxy NGC 6670 in the Peacock - Galaxy NGC 6670 in Pavo - The galaxy NGC 6670, is about 400 million light years away from Earth in the southern constellation of Peacock. This system consists of two collision galaxies seen by the slice. Their nuclei are approximately 50,000 light years away. Image obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope on 30 October 2001. NGC 6670 is a gorgeous pair of overlapping edge - on galaxies. Scientists believe that NGC 6670 has already experienced at least one close encounter and is now in the early stages of a second. The nuclei of the two galaxies are approximately 50,000 light - years apart. NGC 6670 glows in the infrared with more than a hundred billion times the luminosity of our Sun and is thought to be entering a starburst phase. The pair is located some 400 million light - years away from Earth / Bridgeman Images

PIX4612955: Barree spiral galaxy NGC 6744 in the constellation Peacock - Barred spiral galaxy NGC 6744 in Pavo - The galaxy NGC 6744 is located about 25 million years ago - light from Earth. The morphology of this galaxy is very similar to that of our galaxy, the Lactee Way. Image obtained from the 3.9m telescope of Siding Spring, Australia. This beautiful galaxy is about 25 million light years away in the direction of Pavo, a constellation of the southern hemisphere winter. NGC 6744 is believed to one of the most Milky Way - like of all the nearby spirals, with fluffy (flocculent) spiral arms and a large and distinctly elongated nucleus. It also has other similarities to the Milky Way that are not visible here (but seen on a deep image) with at least one distorted companion galaxy superficially similar to one of the Magellanic Clouds. The CCD chip that made this picture at the prime focus of the AAT (Siding Spring) covers about 7 arc minutes of sky. But the galaxy has a much bigger angular size than this, so a series of four overlapping exposures were made in red, green and blue light. Each 3 - color set was made into a color picture and the four images merged to produce the (almost) seamless image seen here / Bridgeman Images

FLO4612974: Great grey shrike (female), Lanius excubitor. Handcoloured copperplate drawn and engraved by Edward Donovan from his own “Natural History of British Birds,” London, 1794-1819. Edward Donovan (1768-1837) was an Anglo-Irish amateur zoologist, writer, artist and engraver. He wrote and illustrated a series of volumes on birds, fish, shells and insects, opened his own museum of natural history in London, but later he fell on hard times and died penniless., Donovan, Edward (1768-1837) / Bridgeman Images

FLO4612977: Rook, Corvus frugilegus. Handcoloured copperplate drawn and engraved by Edward Donovan from his own “Natural History of British Birds,” London, 1794-1819. Edward Donovan (1768-1837) was an Anglo-Irish amateur zoologist, writer, artist and engraver. He wrote and illustrated a series of volumes on birds, fish, shells and insects, opened his own museum of natural history in London, but later he fell on hard times and died penniless., Donovan, Edward (1768-1837) / Bridgeman Images

FLO4612983: Red grouse, Lagopus lagopus scotica. Handcoloured copperplate drawn and engraved by Edward Donovan from his own “Natural History of British Birds,” London, 1794-1819. Edward Donovan (1768-1837) was an Anglo-Irish amateur zoologist, writer, artist and engraver. He wrote and illustrated a series of volumes on birds, fish, shells and insects, opened his own museum of natural history in London, but later he fell on hard times and died penniless., Donovan, Edward (1768-1837) / Bridgeman Images

PIX4612985: Colliding galaxy Ngc 6745 in Lyra - Colliding galaxy NGC 6745 in Lyra - The spiral galaxy NGC 6745 is located about 206 million years away - light from Earth. This galaxy is double; a second galaxy at the bottom right of the image collides with it, causing star formation. Image obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1996. A large spiral galaxy, with its nucleus still intact, peers at the smaller passing galaxy (almost out of the field of view at lower right). These galaxies did not merely interact gravitationally as they passed one another, they actually collided. When galaxies collide, the stars that normally comprise the major portion of the luminous mass of each of the two galaxies will almost never collide with each other but will pass rather freely between each other with little damage. This occurs because the physical size of individual stars is tiny compared to their typical separations, making the chance of physical encounter relatively small. In our own Milky Way galaxy, the space between our Sun and our nearest stellar neighbor, Proxima Centauri (part of the Alpha Centauri triple system), is a vast 4.3 light - years. However, the situation is quite different for the interstellar media in the above two galaxies - material consisting largely of clouds of atomic and molecular gases and of tiny particles of matter and dust, strongly coupled to the gas. Wherever the interstellar clouds of the two galaxies collide, they do not freely move past each other without interruption but, rather, suffer a damaging collision. High relative velocities cause ram pressures at the surface of contact between the interacting interstellar clouds. This pressure, in turn, produces material densities sufficiently extreme as to trigger star formation through gravitational collapse. The hot blue stars in this image are evidence of this star formation / Bridgeman Images

FLO4612989: Eurasian foot-white woodcock, Scolopax rusticola. Handcoloured copperplate drawn and engraved by Edward Donovan from his own “Natural History of British Birds,” London, 1794-1819. Edward Donovan (1768-1837) was an Anglo-Irish amateur zoologist, writer, artist and engraver. He wrote and illustrated a series of volumes on birds, fish, shells and insects, opened his own museum of natural history in London, but later he fell on hard times and died penniless., Donovan, Edward (1768-1837) / Bridgeman Images

PIX4612996: Spiral galaxy NGC 6744 in the constellation Peacock - Spiral galaxy NGC 6744 in Pavo - The galaxy NGC 6744 is about 25 million years away - light from Earth. Image obtained from the 3.9m telescope of Siding Spring, Australia. This beautiful galaxy is about 25 million light years away in the direction of Pavo, a constellation of the southern hemisphere winter. It sits in a rich starfield, and is strongly inclined to our line of sight. NGC 6744 is believed to one of the most Milky Way - like of all the nearby spirals, with fluffy (flocculent) spiral arms and a large and distinctly elongated nucleus. It also has other similarities to the Milky Way that are not visible here with at least one distorted companion galaxy superficially similar to one of the Magellanic Clouds / Bridgeman Images

FLO4613005: Bar-tailed godwit (female), Limosa lapponica. Handcoloured copperplate drawn and engraved by Edward Donovan from his own “Natural History of British Birds,” London, 1794-1819. Edward Donovan (1768-1837) was an Anglo-Irish amateur zoologist, writer, artist and engraver. He wrote and illustrated a series of volumes on birds, fish, shells and insects, opened his own museum of natural history in London, but later he fell on hard times and died penniless., Donovan, Edward (1768-1837) / Bridgeman Images

PIX4613348: The Small Magellanic Cloud (NGC 292) - The Small Magellanic Cloud (NGC 292) - The Small Magellanic Cloud galaxy is about 240,000 years from Earth in the southern constellation of Toucan. It's one of the closest galaxies of the Lactee Way. Two globular clusters are visible in this image, on the right the Toucan cluster, at the top of the galaxy the NGC 362 cluster. The Small Magellanic Cloud is about 210,000 light years in the constellation of Tucana. It is one of the Milky Way's nearest neighbors. The globular clusters 47 Tucana (on the right) and NGC 362 (on the upper left corner) are also visible on this image / Bridgeman Images

FLO4613352: Bar-tailed godwit, Limosa lapponica. Handcoloured copperplate drawn and engraved by Edward Donovan from his own “Natural History of British Birds,” London, 1794-1819. Edward Donovan (1768-1837) was an Anglo-Irish amateur zoologist, writer, artist and engraver. He wrote and illustrated a series of volumes on birds, fish, shells and insects, opened his own museum of natural history in London, but later he fell on hard times and died penniless., Donovan, Edward (1768-1837) / Bridgeman Images

FLO4613369: Dusky lark, Pinarocorys nigricans. Handcoloured copperplate drawn and engraved by Edward Donovan from his own “Natural History of British Birds,” London, 1794-1819. Edward Donovan (1768-1837) was an Anglo-Irish amateur zoologist, writer, artist and engraver. He wrote and illustrated a series of volumes on birds, fish, shells and insects, opened his own museum of natural history in London, but later he fell on hard times and died penniless., Donovan, Edward (1768-1837) / Bridgeman Images

FLO4613372: Mew or winter gull, Larus canus. Handcoloured copperplate drawn and engraved by Edward Donovan from his own “Natural History of British Birds,” London, 1794-1819. Edward Donovan (1768-1837) was an Anglo-Irish amateur zoologist, writer, artist and engraver. He wrote and illustrated a series of volumes on birds, fish, shells and insects, opened his own museum of natural history in London, but later he fell on hard times and died penniless., Donovan, Edward (1768-1837) / Bridgeman Images

PIX4613443: The Large Magellanic Cloud - The Large Magellanic Cloud - The Great Magellan Cloud galaxy is about 160,000 light years away from Earth in the southern constellation of Bream. Visible with the naked eye in the southern hemishere it is one of the closest galaxies to ours. The Large Magellanic Cloud is an irregular galaxy located about 160,000 light years distance from Earth in the constellation Dorado. Visible naked - eye in the night sky of the southern hemisphere, it is one of the closest galaxy from us / Bridgeman Images

FLO4613451: Brambling, Fringilla montifringilla. Handcoloured copperplate drawn and engraved by Edward Donovan from his own “Natural History of British Birds,” London, 1794-1819. Edward Donovan (1768-1837) was an Anglo-Irish amateur zoologist, writer, artist and engraver. He wrote and illustrated a series of volumes on birds, fish, shells and insects, opened his own museum of natural history in London, but later he fell on hard times and died penniless., Donovan, Edward (1768-1837) / Bridgeman Images

FLO4613477: Wood grouse, Tetrao urogallus. Handcoloured copperplate drawn and engraved by Edward Donovan from his own “Natural History of British Birds,” London, 1794-1819. Edward Donovan (1768-1837) was an Anglo-Irish amateur zoologist, writer, artist and engraver. He wrote and illustrated a series of volumes on birds, fish, shells and insects, opened his own museum of natural history in London, but later he fell on hard times and died penniless., Donovan, Edward (1768-1837) / Bridgeman Images

FLO4613486: Hobby, Falco subbuteo, with one foot on a dead bird. Handcoloured copperplate drawn and engraved by Edward Donovan from his own “Natural History of British Birds,” London, 1794-1819. Edward Donovan (1768-1837) was an Anglo-Irish amateur zoologist, writer, artist and engraver. He wrote and illustrated a series of volumes on birds, fish, shells and insects, opened his own museum of natural history in London, but later he fell on hard times and died penniless., Donovan, Edward (1768-1837) / Bridgeman Images

PIX4613496: The Large Magellanic Cloud - The Large Magellanic Cloud - The Great Magellan Cloud galaxy is about 160,000 light years away from Earth in the southern constellation of Bream. Visible with the naked eye in the southern hemishere it is one of the closest galaxies to ours. The irregular galaxy Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is located at a distance of 160,000 light years in the southern constellation of Dorado. It is one of the nearest galaxy, visible to naked eye / Bridgeman Images

FLO4613516: Lesser or little tern, Sternula albifrons. Handcoloured copperplate drawn and engraved by Edward Donovan from his own “Natural History of British Birds,” London, 1794-1819. Edward Donovan (1768-1837) was an Anglo-Irish amateur zoologist, writer, artist and engraver. He wrote and illustrated a series of volumes on birds, fish, shells and insects, opened his own museum of natural history in London, but later he fell on hard times and died penniless., Donovan, Edward (1768-1837) / Bridgeman Images

PIX4613539: Spiral galaxy ESO 269 - 57 in Centaurus - Galaxy ESO 269 - 57 in Centaurus - The spiral galaxy ESO 269 - 57 is about 155 million years away - light from Earth. The picture shows the complex structure of ESO 269 - 57, with an inner “” ring””, of several tightly wound spiral arms, surrounded by two outer ones that appear to split into several branches. Many blue and diffuse objects are visible - most are star - forming regions. The galaxy type is Sa (r) and its distance is about 155 million light - years. It extends over about 4 arcmin in the sky, corresponding to almost 200,000 light - years across. Many other galaxies are visible in the background. This three - colour composite was obtained with VLT ANTU and FORS1 in the morning of March 27, 1999 / Bridgeman Images

FLO4613540: Willow Pagopede. Lagopus lagopus (Tetrao lagopus). Copper engraving by Edward Donovan (1768-1837), published in Histoire naturelle des oiseaux britanniques, London, 1794-1819., Donovan, Edward (1768-1837) / Bridgeman Images

PIX4613581: Galaxy UGC 10214 in the Dragon - Galaxy UGC 10214 in Draco - The galaxy UGC 10214 is about 420 million years away - light from Earth. The shape of this galaxy is due to a collision with another galaxy, the small galaxy, blue, visible in the upper left corner of the image. Powerful gravitational forces are responsible for the formation of the tail, consisting of stars of dust and gas, which stretches over nearly 28,000 light years and is composed of recently formed and extremely bright blue stars. In the background, more than 6000 galaxies are visible, some more than 12 billion years apart - light. Image obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope in April 2002. This picture of the galaxy UGC 10214 was taken by the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), which was installed aboard Nasa's Hubble Space Telescope in March during Servicing Mission 3B. Its distorted shape was caused by a small interloper, a very blue, compact galaxy visible in the upper left corner of the more massive Tadpole. The Tadpole resides about 420 million light - years away in the constellation Draco. Seen shining through the Tadpole's disk, the tiny intruder is likely a hit - and - run galaxy that is now leaving the scene of the accident. Strong gravitational forces from the interaction created the long tail of debris, consisting of stars and gas that stretch out more than 280,000 light - years. Numerous young blue stars and star clusters, spawned by the galaxy collision, are seen in the spiral arms, as well as in the long “” tidal”” tail of stars. Each of these clusters represents the formation of up to about a million stars. Their color is blue because they contain very massive stars, which are 10 times hotter and 1 million times brighter than our Sun. Once formed, the star clusters become redder with age as the most massive and bluest stars exhaust their fuel and burn out. These clusters will eventually become old globula / Bridgeman Images

FLO4613596: Summer teal. Anas querquedula. Copper engraving by Edward Donovan (1768-1837), published in Histoire naturelle des oiseaux britanniques, London, 1794-1819., Donovan, Edward (1768-1837) / Bridgeman Images

PIX4613610: Galaxy UGC 9618 in Bovier - Galaxy UGC 9618 in Botes - The galaxy UGC 9618, also called VV 340 or Arp 302, is about 450 million years away from Earth. It is a pair of interacting spiral galaxies, VV 340A (view from the edge, bottom) and VV 340B (view from the front, top). Massive stars are formed in abundance. Image obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope in January 2002. UGC 9618, also known as VV 340 or Arp 302 consists of a pair of very gas - rich spiral galaxies in their early stages of interaction: VV 340A is seen edge - on to the left, and VV 340B face - on to the right. An enormous amount of infrared light is radiated by the gas from massive stars that are forming at a rate similar to the most vigorous giant star - forming regions in our own Milky Way. UGC 9618 is 450 million light - years away from Earth, and is the 302nd galaxy in ARP's Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies / Bridgeman Images