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
If the universe was created by a big bang as we are told, why are galaxies colliding? Shouldn’t they be moving out from a central point away from each other? Do some galaxies have “english” as in billiards and move in an arc? I will never make it as an astronomer.
What is really interesting and confusing to me is that these interactions are of course gravity based. But gravitational influences travel at the speed of light, and these beasts, like our own Milky Way galaxy, are 100,000+ light years across! So surely there has to be an enormous delay factor of sorts. Even the neat spiral structure of a given galaxy is very mysterious to me because of this. Our Milky Way is a spiral galaxy roughly 100,000 light years across.
Only for a Comet or a Saturn.
And the deductible is astronomical. Void in most places.
Nearly all galaxies ARE moving away from every other galaxy. However, some galaxies happened to form close enough to each so that the force of gravity counteracts the universal expansion and pulls them together. On the larger scales, universal expansion easily wins out. Gravity effects are local.
There are also other strange things, where entire groups of galaxies are moving off (together) against the general universal expansion flow. Look up “Deep Flow”. Also “The Great Attractor”.
Lol!
We’re DOOOOOOOOOOOOMED!
:-)
Thanks for the awesome ping, ETL
Fantastic photos............Thanks
Thanks ETL. Luckily, one was the Chocolate Galaxy, the other one was the Peanut Butter Galaxy...
Thanks fieldmarshaldj!
Lol! I remember that commercial!
Because of the interstellar distances within galaxies, it's said that galaxies can pass through each other with little effect on individual stars (or their planets).
But I've long been interested in what kind of fireworks might be unleashed if the supermassive black holes at the centers of a pair of galaxies were lined up so that they actually collide...
Doesn't strike me as a nice neighborhood to be near... '-)
Nebula would be a great name brand for any kind of spread (jams, jellies, pb, hazelnut butter, wth, chocolate...).
That could be a big kaboom, assuming black holes actually exist of course. :^) The overall mutual attraction would disrupt all the stars in each galaxy, disrupt planetary systems, etc, but the degree to which they'd be disrupted would vary based of course on the mass and proximity.
Look, Sigmund. Look in the sky. The planets are on fire. It is just as you prophesied. The planets of our solar system, incinerating. Like flaming globes, Sigmund. Like flaming globes.. Ah, ha, ha, ha..
~~~~~~~~
I would also expect a huge, bursting flood of ionizing radiation. That's not the healthiest thing -- at least for folks like us...
Think about it, we worry about radiation from CMEs. which are mere "'burps' from our local star".
I'm fairly confident that huge mass concentrations (SMBHs) are common at the center of most (spiral, at least) galaxies. The annihilation/interaction of a pair of those 'wee beasties' would probably be news radiated across the entire universe...
Of course, since all our info travels at the C speed limit, such radiated "news" could arrive at our radio / IR / optical / UV / gravity wave sensors at any time -- from such events in our far distant past.
Be thankful for the inverse square law... '-)
TXnMA
Looks like they’re holding hands
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