Posted on 03/08/2019 3:14:44 PM PST by ETL
Located in the constellation of Hercules, about 230 million light-years away, NGC 6052 is a pair of colliding galaxies. They were first discovered in 1784 by William Herschel and were originally classified as a single irregular galaxy because of their odd shape. However, we now know that NGC 6052 actually consists of two galaxies that are in the process of colliding. This particular image of NGC 6052 was taken using the Wide Field Camera 3 on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.
A long time ago gravity drew the two galaxies together into the chaotic state we now observe. Stars from within both of the original galaxies now follow new trajectories caused by the new gravitational effects. However, actual collisions between stars themselves are very rare as stars are very small relative to the distances between them (most of a galaxy is empty space). Eventually the galaxies will fully merge to form a single, stable galaxy.
Our own galaxy, the Milky Way, will undergo a similar collision in the future with our nearest galactic neighbor, the Andromeda galaxy. However, this is not expected to happen for around 4 billion years.
Explore further: Image: Hubble views two galaxies merging
Provided by: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
*ping*
No doubt their is at least one group of aliens in these galaxies who believe this collision is catastrophic & taxes must be raised to stop it.
“Was that 4 Billion years, or 4 Million years?”
Either way I don’t think you and me need to worry about it!
Right now, “We” should be considering avoiding extinction
by figuring out how to live and thrive in Space and on other
Planets.
We can then work on figuring out how to get to other
Star systems.
We have plenty of time to ponder escape to another Galaxy...
;-)
Easy
Afraid those tasks will have to be left to the progeny
of our progeny. (Cool music, that!)
Easy
Is there such a thing as “Galaxy insurance”?
I wonder why the spirals are so obvious!
WOW, WAY COOL!!!!
Gods handy work.
This is about as cool as it gets. I haven’t looked at the hubble site in a while...some fabulous pictures in the deep space gallery
Well put— “Was” a pair of galaxies. Was just thinking, a) how beautiful a photo with such clarity then b.) this beautiful light is visible to us when photographed— and is light that is showing up from how long ago in time?
So started down the calculation:
230 million light years away. A light year is the distance that light will travel in 365 Earth days time. Speed of light is 186,000 miles a second.
The galaxies said to be seen 230 million light years away, aren’t actually 230 million light years away. Their light has been traveling for 230 million years to reach us.
If everything in the universe is stationary- then the galaxies would have emitted their light 230 million years ago.
Mostly all this would be the case if the universe was stationary. But... the universe is expanding. away in times— many multiples of the oldest. Spooky.
Heck, it took till post 10, what was I supposed to do?
In a galaxy far.....Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!
If only the aliens there had raised their taxes more to stop the galaxies from colliding.
Crazy how small and smart we are ...... sort of like the common cold.
Yes, one light year works out to around 5.9 TRILLION miles. The galaxies are in the neighborhood of 230 LYs! So if you plan on visiting pack a sweater and a few sandwiches. :)
The “collision” with Andromeda is estimated to be in about 4-5 billion years, around the same time that the sun is expected to swell large enough to reach mars.
I was just quoting Professor Stephen Jay Gould, when a student asked him that question from the back of the room.
And when Mars goes—we're already toast. (At least, whatever's left).
Wonder what they are going to have?
Yeah, here’s a great video ( < 4 minutes) about it.
The night sky before it and during the collision will be spectacular, but after it all settles, it will be pretty bland!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnYCpQyRp-4
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