Image of the Day: You Name the Cosmos

Many of the recent discoveries by the Hubble Space Telescope have been "named" with numbers. Gone are the poetic, mythic names like Milky Way or Andromeda or Pegasus.

Let's have some fun and help NASA out and create names for these awesome celestial objects.

We'll select your best submissions and send them off to NASA headquarters.

What's your name for: Spiral galaxies NGC 5426 and NGC 5427, which are passing perilously close to each other, but each is likely to survive the collision.

  Most frequently when galaxies collide, according to NASA experts, a large galaxy eats a much smaller galaxy. In this case, however, the two galaxies are quite similar, each being a sprawling spiral with expansive arms and a compact core. Close inspection of the above image taken by the 8-meter Gemini-South Telescope in Chile shows a bridge of material momentarily connecting the two giants. Known collectively as Arp 271, the interacting pair spans about 130,000 light years and lies about 90 million light-years away toward the constellation of Virgo. Credit & Copyright:  Gemini Observatory, GMOS-South, NSF

  Most frequently when galaxies collide, according to NASA experts, a large galaxy eats a much smaller galaxy. In this case, however, the two galaxies are quite similar, each being a sprawling spiral with expansive arms and a compact core. Close inspection of the above image taken by the 8-meter Gemini-South Telescope in Chile shows a bridge of material momentarily connecting the two giants. Known collectively as Arp 271, the interacting pair spans about 130,000 light years and lies about 90 million light-years away toward the constellation of Virgo. Credit & Copyright:  Gemini Observatory, GMOS-South, NSF

Comments

[SiliconJon]

I name thee "Coquette"

[tej]

eyes of god

[Randall Klopping]

Utu & Inanna - Twin brother & sister from Sumerian mythology.

[Danzi]

Apollo and Artemis ( the twins of Zeus and Leto )

[Mike]

Luke and Leia

[Chris]

They should name them Gemini 1 and Gemini 2, for the "Twin" constellation.

[Andrew B]

Sanctity and Peril

[Jane Reed]

Treble clef galaxy(s)

[Tracy]

With that description, I'm thinking "Two Ships."

[claudio]

I suggest to call the pairs " The Virgo cluster Tweens"

By the waythe so called 'Virgo cluster' is quite well known.

Regards to the tweens

[Owen Graham]

Romulus and Remus

or

Cane and Abel

[SiliconJon]

Coquette [koh-ket]: a woman who flirts lightheartedly with men to win their admiration and affection; flirt

For the winking of the galactic eye as though it were blinking at me. Also, for the proximity of the two within one another, appearing (at least in the photo) to be in a flirtatious dance with each other.

Though I guess it would need to be the Coquette Pair, eh.

For individual names I would like Eros & Psyche.

[o-dish-es]

The Topless Galaxy, obviously.

[miss]

The cha-cha galaxy.

[Subjector]

Mac and Windows considering both companies always seem to try to outdo the other, heh.

[gino cipriano]

Twisted Sisters

[dianne raner]

NEXUS:
a means of connection; tie; link.
a connected series or group.
a binding, joining, fastening,
to bind, fasten, tie.

[dianne raner]

ENSEMBLE:
all the parts of a thing taken together

[SusanGrisantiGuitarist]

CINNAMON ROLLS (from The Universe Coffee Shop)

[Michael Steele]

SPECTACLE

[Rev. Carl Bowers]

How about "the Evangeline galaxies," after Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ("ships that pass in the night")?

For a classical allusion, try Pyramus and Thisbe, tragic and unconsummated lovers from Greek mythology-- the original of the Romeo and Juliet tale.

[distortedgrooves]

I name thee...'Who's-bright-idea-was-it-to-spend-money-on-weapons-and-warfare-instead-of-space-exploration.-Now-How-are-we-gonna-escape-this-galaxy-before-the-collision-eh?-Galaxy."

[distortedgrooves]

I'd also like to call it...'Penny Farthing Galaxy'

[J]

Jude Galaxy...(One chapter away from Revelations. Too late to cry about it...

[Paramore]

Beavis and Butthead