Posted on 01/20/2023 12:44:44 PM PST by MtnClimber
Explanation: The two dominant galaxies near center are far far away, 12 million light-years distant toward the northern constellation of the Great Bear. On the right, with grand spiral arms and bright yellow core is spiral galaxy M81. Also known as Bode's galaxy, M81 spans some 100,000 light-years. On the left is cigar-shaped irregular galaxy M82. The pair have been locked in gravitational combat for a billion years. Gravity from each galaxy has profoundly affected the other during a series of cosmic close encounters. Their last go-round lasted about 100 million years and likely raised density waves rippling around M81, resulting in the richness of M81's spiral arms. M82 was left with violent star forming regions and colliding gas clouds so energetic that the galaxy glows in X-rays. In the next few billion years, their continuing gravitational encounters will result in a merger, and a single galaxy will remain. This extragalactic scenario also includes other members of the interacting M81 galaxy group with NGC 3077 below and right of the large spiral, and NGC 2976 at upper right in the frame. Captured under dark night skies in the Austrian Alps, the foreground of the wide-field image is filled with integrated flux nebulae. Those faint, dusty interstellar clouds reflect starlight above the plane of our own Milky Way galaxy.
For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.
We will all be in one gigantic humongous colossal stupendous galaxy at some point in time....................
ALL galaxies will merge...............
My parents had one of those cars...................
If we can get M87 to join with Andromeda and the Milky Way, we might have a chance against IC 1101.
No seat belts back then.
I remember.
L-1011.
Must I remind you that the universe is expanding beyond its escape velocity? Like steady state, the big crunch theory is now obsolete. The expansion is accelerating. Local groups and galaxy clusters may eventually merge after a googol or so years, but super galactic clusters will not as they are not gravitationally bound. And if the Big Rip theory is true, the universe will end in 20 billion years.
I found a pic that looks just like the car they had!................
/ End thread hijack
I won’t tell IC 1101 you said that.
Absolutely magnificent.
My mind is far too finite on this side of the Great Divide to fully comprehend such wonders, but I’d love to be able to spend part of Eternity exploring them.
Yep, there’s plenty to blow your mind. The amazing thing to me is that we are capable of seeing the entire universe almost as far as it is possible to see. Because beyond a certain point, the universe is expanding faster than the speed of light.
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Who knows how many worlds there might be in those three galaxies.
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