Posted on 08/09/2019 4:46:09 PM PDT by simpson96
Aug. 9 (UPI) -- NASA shared an image, recently captured by Hubble, of the galactic duo UGC 2369 on Friday. The image showcases the pair caught in a playful dance.
Long, long ago, the galaxies were separate, but today, they are in the midst of colliding. Slowly, their mutual gravitational attraction is pulling them closer and closer. As they've become entwined, gravity has distorted their features, altering their appearances.
"A tenuous bridge of gas, dust and stars can be seen connecting the two galaxies, created when they pulled material out into space across the diminishing divide between them," NASA wrote in a news release.
Still, despite their contortions and shared name, the two galactic entities remain visibly distinct. Millions of years from now, however, the pair will be almost completely enjoined.
No galaxy can persist on its own for very long, relatively speaking -- interactions are inevitable.
For large galaxies like the Milky Way, galactic interactions typically involved small neighbors. Over the last few billion years, the Milky Way has absorbed several of its neighbors.
For big galaxies, such interactions cause minimal structural disruption. Interactions with dwarf galaxies are relatively common.
"But every few billion years, a more momentous event can occur," according to NASA. "For our home galaxy, the next big event will take place in about four billion years, when it will collide with its bigger neighbor, the Andromeda galaxy. Over time, the two galaxies will likely merge into one -- already nicknamed Milkomeda."
(Excerpt) Read more at upi.com ...
Is this not yet another display of the Glory of God?
*ping*
playful? I see mass destruction of many worlds. That brown cloud is dust from destroyed planets and stars.
Let’s hope any intelligent life forms have no-fault insurance, or else the galactic lawyers are going to have a field day with damage lawsuits.
“In space, no one can hear you scream.”
Like atoms, most of a galaxy is empty space. The distance between stars is so vast that individual stars and planets get through galactic mergers just fine.
How many light years away is this? Link did not give.
Most likely by now their respective black holes in the center of each have merged already....
The gama and x rays headed straight to Earth.
We are doomed, just don't know it yet.
“Milkomeda”
Glad I won’t be alive to live in a place with such a retarded name.
That’s what I was wondering. I realize galaxies are mostly empty space. Even a solar system is mostly empty space. But when you put that many masses that close together... There have got to be some, maybe many(?) cataclysmic collisions. What would it be like for say a rocky Earth like planet to hit a gas giant? Or plunge into a star? Or two stars colliding??? I’ll never see it, but the energies involved...
Well, Andromeda is 2 MILLION light years away... Which means the galaxy we see today is two million years old.
I would gather UGC 2369 is a LOT father away. Say at least 100 million light years. Or probably further and more distant in time and space.
Then that would mean that the collision happened back when dinosaurs were here on Earth...
“Long, long ago, the galaxies were separate, but today, they are in the midst of colliding. Slowly, their mutual gravitational attraction is pulling them closer and closer.”
And they say Romance is dead! ;)
” I see mass destruction of many worlds. That brown cloud is dust from destroyed planets and stars.”
As crazy as it may seem, the chances of any stars colliding from two merging galaxies is basically zero. That’s the incredible scale of distances we’re talking here.
“...the collision happened back when dinosaurs were here on Earth...”
Joe Biden was a witness to it.
“Glad I won’t be alive to live in a place with such a retarded name.”
LOL!
Ha! I like your observation after reading that.
:)
"We've got to do something about that name!"
bkmrk
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