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 ...
You mean like on a planet whose name is a synonym for 'dirt'?
Kinda looks like Jack from Jack in the BOX riding a Tube or a Surfboard...
Or it might be My Drugs...
I believe that theory is mistaken that you're stating.
Yes, there are incredible distances between the stars. The primary reason for the two galaxies to destroy each other would be the magnetic fields on many stars. They will pull each together like magnets.
I might be wrong, but Andromeda is moving towards us?
If they’re all,pulled together into a mega black hole will there be another big bang? Could the big bang and universe collapse be a recurring thing?
SUDDENLY *BAM* AN ENTIRE PLANTARY SYSTEM SLAMS THROUGH YOUR PLANET....
You eventually run out of elasticity. Ever try to ball up a pizza dough and then spin it out again?
I’m still waiting for someone to rerun the math for the KIC 9832227 collision.
The data went dark. All of a sudden it was “Ooops, never mind, nothing to see here just move along.”
Perhaps objects in the mirror are closer than they appear.
Here, watch some goats dancing - and rest your weary head:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e—dv201zhE
I’ve been thinking about Hubble’s future, and also about the abandoned TAU Project. TAU stood for Thousands of Astronomical Units. It was intended as a way to get a telescope up above the galactic plane, and over the dust in that plane to get a direct optical view of the center of the galaxy.
See where I’m going with this?
We have a perfectly good (indeed, OUTSTANDING!) telescope already in space. A few modifications, remove the solar panels, replace them with deep space SNAP generators. Add an ion drive rocket, a bigger data transceiver, upgraded gyros, and a few other odds and sods. Either fully gimbal mount, or yoke mount it to orient the telescope to roughly the galactic plane and very slowly spin the entire assembly like a bottle so that the telescope itself periodically pans the entire galaxy (daily, weekly, monthly?).
Visualize this as the telescope being the top bar of a ‘T’ (or tau) with the enhanced data link, ion engine, and such forming the stem of the ‘T’.
At a very modest 0.01g acceleration, it would be 10,000 AU above the galactic plane in 5 1/2 years.
We’d have clear photos, clear OPTICAL photos of the galactic core. We’d have millions of images of our local neighborhood, and a very long baseline for exactly calibrating distances to stars in our own galaxy*.
We’d be able to actually see the other arms of our galaxy! Right now we’re stuck down in the smog, and like a mid 70s Angelino, we can’t even see the local mountains! (except they had occasional clear days!)
*we use those "known" distances to estimate distances to distant stars with the same characteristics...
there is a lot of metal in the universe. The larger the mass of metal the stronger the magnetic pull. Over 30% of all white dwarfs for example has lots of metal in them they have 4 million times the magnetic pull then the earth does or a two million times that of our sun.
Astrophysicist Rebecca Smethurst explain it a lot better than I can:
What's the probability that two stars collide when galaxies collide? [with equations!]
This duo is supposed to be 424 million light years away, in the constellation Aries. So the light we see had been traveling toward us for 200 million years already during the early part of the Age of Dinosaurs.
Okay but I get the smog reference.
What about the lovely view of the orange layer a few thousand feet up 330. It's what scenic lookouts are for!
Exactly!
I like ‘Andromeda Way’.
Caused by global warming.
Well that would fit right in since in Greek myth the galaxy we are in was created by Hera spurting her breast milk across the universe. Lactic in Galactic would indicate that.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.