Galactic Cannibalism Photographed

fuqqer writes "What does a galaxy do when it gets hungry? It eats another...Check out the story of intergalactic cannibalism on space.com, or on cnn.com. There's a oldie but goodie nature article too! This ain't no pygmy Thanksgiving in Borneo!"

Oh yeah?!

[ewhenn]

Dear Death Star,

Eat your heart out

Signed,
The omega system

Why it's important

[ghostlibrary]

It's thought that spiral galaxies are the result of mergers or collisions. Thus if we hadn't interacted with another galaxy way back when, we'd not have a spiral. Since interactions cause star formation bursts, and those kick out a lot of metals, they're great for making more potentially life-bearing systems. Cannibalism, that's just if things get too slow and close.

But that's not really why studying galaxy interactions is worth doing. A big reason beyond "it's cool to know the origins of stuff" is that there's only 2 ways to test basic physics. Either crash subatomic stuff, or look at galaxy-scale or larger. Both are the only places where really small effects in physics (like relativity or mass differences or antisymmetry effects) show up.

Subatomic is easier in some ways, as you can actually run an experiment, play with variables. In astronomy, you can only observe, classify, and hope to identify things that are similar yet different.

The famed dark matter hack, for example (hmm... my galaxies won't hold together with just stars and gas using gravity. Let me add some dark matter to keep them stable, those pesky humans won't know the difference) is a good case for continuing this study. If dark matter exists, it should also exist in our solar system, and may have properties worth investigating. If it doesn't exist, our basic understanding of physics is entirely wrong and that opens up entirely new possibilities.

So, support your local astronomers, they're determining reality around you, and letting us know where we came from!

Re:Why it's important

[dreamchaser]

Read up on 'Supersymmetry' (start with a Google Search). The best current candidate for dark matter is the LSP (Lightest Superpartner), which is expected to be discovered (may already have been in fact) at either CERN or Fermilab.

Supersymmetric particles do not interact with 'normal' matter, hence we can't detect them directly. The only exception to this is the Higgs Boson, which is believed to be what gives all particles their mass.

We'll never be able to study dark matter directly, only it's effects on

NASA Pr0n?

[mhesseltine]

click here for hot galaxy-on-galaxy action [space.com]

Swirl!

[Anonvmous Coward]

Sega has filed suit against the Tadpole Galaxy over a trademark dispute involving their Dreamcast logo. Representatives from Sega said... oh ... crap. I'm sorry guys, I've got nothin. I have no idea why I can't come up with a zinger with a wonderful setup like this.

Oh my god, what have they done!!

[poity]

Soon, there will be Mad Galaxy Disease!

Then, all the non-affected galaxies will organize a boycott of imported ... matter.

In Russia...

[Johnny Mnemonic]

In Space, Galaxies eat YOU!

And it is all because:

[xyvimur]

One Galaxy to Rule Them All, and In the Darkness Bind Them All.

Silver man on surfboard seen fleeing scene

[Mothra the III]

Unidentified man not available for comment.