Galaxies in Collision
EmailFive billion light-years away, the Spitzer infrared Space Telescope has spotted a cataclysm in progress–four galaxies crashing into each other, flinging stars in all different directions. Galactic collisions are actually fairly common, but not on the scale observed in this case. "When this merger is complete, this will be one of the biggest galaxies in the universe," writes Kenneth Rines of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. More HERE. Rines reports the find along with Rose Finn of Siena College and Alexey Viklinin of Harvard. The abstract of their paper, which is being published in Astrophysical Journal Letters, is HERE. The picture above (click to enlarge) is an artist’s conception, by Tim Pyle, of what the galaxies would look like from a hypothetical planet, circling a star that had been flung into intergalactic space as the galaxies came together. The Spitzer Telescope image has been combined with one in visible light from a telescope at Kitt Peak Observatory near Tucson Ariz., to form an image you can find HERE. Galaxies, consisting mostly of stars separated by empty space, do not actually "collide" with each other; they actually pass through each other, with the gravity from all those stars pulling them together into larger and larger galaxies. Hence the astrophysicist’s term, "merger." Our Milky Way will merge with the Andromeda Galaxy in about five billion years, by which time science fiction writers predict we’ll either have turned to dust, come to rule the universe, or something in between.
(Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle (SSC))
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Absolutely fascinating, Ned, but I think a better term than “merger” is needed to refer to a galactic collision. In my opinion, “merger” sounds too financial, as if one galaxy is forcing a leveraged buyout of the other. Just off the top of my head, I’d suggest “fusion,” “agglomeration,” or even “combination.” But maybe I’m too focused on the details.
Posted by: chuck | August 7, 2007, 3:12 pm 3:12 pm
this is amazing, maybe when we die we will go to differnt galaxies and live our lives as cats in a giant ball of yarn
Posted by: MaxPower | August 7, 2007, 3:19 pm 3:19 pm
Question:
Since this galaxy is 5 billion light years away and we are just know seeing it, didn’t this merger happen 5 billion years ago?
Posted by: Stotto | August 7, 2007, 3:41 pm 3:41 pm
Stotto you are correct, the galaxy shape has already been formed but we will not see that for another billion years most likely
Posted by: MaxPower | August 7, 2007, 3:43 pm 3:43 pm
Thanks for the clarification MaxPower.
Posted by: Stotto | August 7, 2007, 3:45 pm 3:45 pm
Wait a minute. I thought the universe was created by a guy with a flowing white beard who lives in the clouds above my head. How could all of this stuff be happening so far away???
Posted by: CMWin3 | August 7, 2007, 3:47 pm 3:47 pm
CMWin3 you got your facts all wrong, the guy with the flowing beard ended up being the second cousin of Charlton Heston…the real guy you are thinking of is Mr Belvedere, he’s got powers if you know what i mean
Posted by: MaxPower | August 7, 2007, 3:51 pm 3:51 pm
I think that this is yet another one of God’s wounderful creations… Just look at how amazing it really is.
Posted by: Megan | August 7, 2007, 3:58 pm 3:58 pm
Wonder what all those Evangelical Republicans think about this, seeing as the Earth is only 4000 years old and dinosaurs never existed…
Posted by: DaveM | August 7, 2007, 4:04 pm 4:04 pm
Amazing! They can tell what’s happening 5 Billion light years away and know what will happen to our galaxy 5 Billion years from now, but they can’t find Osama Bin Laden.
Posted by: fromthedome99 | August 7, 2007, 4:12 pm 4:12 pm
Hey Megan, what god are you refering to? If I remember all the biblical fiction that was forced into my head when I was younger correctly … didn’t your god create the universe in like 7 days or so? If this is the case … why all the extra activity? If you people want to make an argument for intelligent design, creationalism, whatever … why don’t you tackle the real questions regarding the universe instead of basking in all of “god’s” glory. Or at least just think for yourself for a change!
Posted by: CMWin3 | August 7, 2007, 4:12 pm 4:12 pm
Do you know what a light year is? Multiply that by 5 billion. Do you really think we, little old mankind of planet Earth, can “see” an event taking place that far away? What we “see” happened a long time ago. Besides, the ancient Vedic texts describe the universe as having a finite circumference, like the inside of a basketball, with coverings made of the same elements that make up the universe (earth, water, fire etc.)that’s why it’s dark inside. So, these speculations of an infinite universe of billions of light years in distance is pure conjecture!
Posted by: Gerald | August 7, 2007, 4:26 pm 4:26 pm
regarding the ‘merger should already have happened since what we see is 5 billion years old’…
Stotto and MaxPower, neither of you are correct. The merger, just like the article sais, will happen in about 5 billion years. Never did the article mention how far away the galaxy is, which is in fact about 2.5 million light years away. Even so, the speed at which the galaxy moves has nothing to do with speed of light other than the fact we use it as a form of measuring the distance.
So, according to the article
1. It will still take 5 billion years for our galaxy to merge with Andromeda
2. Andromeda is actually about 2.5 million light years away, and yes, what we see is 2.5 million years old, but has nothing to do with when we will merge with it.
Posted by: Chris | August 7, 2007, 4:34 pm 4:34 pm
Well, if the Vedic texts say so…
Posted by: jeremydbrooks | August 7, 2007, 4:36 pm 4:36 pm
Chris, please read article carefully
“Five billion light-years away, the Spitzer infrared Space Telescope has spotted a cataclysm in progress–four galaxies “
Posted by: MaxPower | August 7, 2007, 4:46 pm 4:46 pm
“Our Milky Way will merge with the Andromeda Galaxy in about five billion years, by which time science fiction writers predict we’ll either have turned to dust, come to rule the universe, or something in between.”
I am a big Sci Fi fan, but heck.. with a prediction like that, how can you be wrong? LOL
Posted by: Troy Street | August 7, 2007, 5:16 pm 5:16 pm
Max, you didn’t read Chris’s post clearly. He said that our galaxy will colide with the Andromeda galaxy in approximatly 5 billion years. And that the distance from our galaxy to the Andromeda is approximatly 2.5 million light years. Now, take that and count, Ours and Andromeda merging…..2 galaxies. Ned’s article about 4 galaxies merging 5 billion light years away…….4 galaxies. Yes, the articles puts the distance at 5 billion light years, yes that means we are seeing the four galaxies as they were 5 billion years ago, around the time that our sun was forming, and before the earth is said by scientists to have formed. Now about the Milky Way and Andromeda merger, yes it’ll happen, it’s been known for a long time, nothing new.
Now, I think this is cool. And somewhat wonder what it’d be like to be in very close proximity to the merger, having your night sky filled with four galaxies as they collide, shear beauty.
Posted by: Lawrence | August 7, 2007, 5:18 pm 5:18 pm
jeremydbrooks, we were talking about the Andromeda Galaxy, that part you quoted is in the same article, but part of a different issue ;). I recommend the same advice! :)
To be very clear,
1 The four galaxies: “Five billion light-years away, the Spitzer infrared Space Telescope has spotted a cataclysm in progress–four galaxies crashing into each other”
2. Our Galaxy and Andromeda: “Our Milky Way will merge with the Andromeda Galaxy in about five billion years..”
Perhaps the fact that both numbers (5-billion years) are the same is causing the confusion… I can see that :)
Posted by: Chris | August 7, 2007, 5:23 pm 5:23 pm
oh, i meant MaxPower, not Jeremydbrooks..sorry! heh
Posted by: chris | August 7, 2007, 5:26 pm 5:26 pm
that’s really out there. and so it was and shall be. what we didn’t witness then, if we were to witness now, would be happening a second time? like Deja Vu it might awaken a spark of recognition in some dormant pasture of cosmic consciousness.
Posted by: jay | August 7, 2007, 9:41 pm 9:41 pm
Yes it’s beautiful, yes it’s a long ways away and probably way older than I am. Who cares what “Merger” sounds like? I certainly don’t. It’s just a regular scientific occurance, from what I understand, happening every few billion years or so.
Posted by: Julie | August 8, 2007, 12:52 am 12:52 am
Merger? I prefer the older form –”coalescence”.
Posted by: Walker Evans | August 8, 2007, 1:43 pm 1:43 pm
Mr. Evans, thank you! “Coalescence” is indeed the perfect term!
Posted by: chuck | August 8, 2007, 2:15 pm 2:15 pm
I’d like to know how Noah got all of those
dinosaurs on the ark? Oh, I know! Magic!!
Posted by: Veryl | August 9, 2007, 12:38 am 12:38 am
Dinosaurs on the ark. They did not exist. And it would take A man and his family lightyears to collect one of every living thing. But people believe what is drummed into them as children, mores the pity.
Posted by: jim | August 9, 2007, 3:04 am 3:04 am
Umm, the dinosaurs didn’t exist???!! Of course they did. We’ve got hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of pieces of evidence that says they did. I’ve even seen the stuff with my own eyes. I don’t know where you’ve gotten your information from, but maybe you should go double check, just to be sure. And when and how did this discussion on galaxies turn religious???
Posted by: Lawrence | August 9, 2007, 8:21 am 8:21 am
To jim: lightyears is a distance, not a measure of time.
To Lawrence: You’re right again.
Anyway, all this is just a local phenomenon. I’d like to know what’s going on in the next block. :-)
Posted by: Andy | August 9, 2007, 12:38 pm 12:38 pm
A light year is both a measure of distance AND time. Especially when involving vision, time and space are linked (haven’t you ever heard of the term, “space-time”? So when a tree falls in a forest 5 billion light years away, We won’t know about it until 5 billion years later. That is the most accurate time we can keep at that distance since sound waves travel much slower than light.
Posted by: Jimmy | August 13, 2007, 9:04 am 9:04 am