Study Details What Happens When Galaxies Collide 52
Aspiring Astronomer writes: According to a recent study, when two galaxies of a similar mass collide, both galaxies will begin producing more stars. However, when one galaxy considerably outweighs the other, the larger galaxy begins producing more stars, whereas the smaller galaxy's star production begins to slow. This may be because the larger galaxy is able to draw gases from the smaller one, resulting in the formation of more stars. The Milky Way may experience a collision of it's own, because the Andromeda Galaxy is moving towards us at speeds upwards of 200,000 miles per hour. No need to worry, though; this collision is a few billion years away.
when worlds collide. (Score:2)
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fuck it. everything is going to hell. I'm going to remove the catalytic converter's from my truck.
Where baby stars come from. (Score:4, Funny)
When a papa galaxy and a mama galaxy love each other very much...
Gurren Lagann (Score:2)
Thanks to Gurren Lagann we already know:
http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-... [kinja-img.com]
They also make effective melee weapons.
Still a long ways off. (Score:2)
Maybe it would be better to leave a note for our Great^166,666,666 grand kids and give them a heads up.
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The summary says that the Andromeda Galaxy is moving towards us (and not us towards it), so we can sue the andromedans for any damage.
You fail at relativity.
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You fail at humor
Oh. Darn. (Score:4, Funny)
On behalf of the rest of the world (Score:4, Funny)
What is a "mile"?
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OK, so it's just over five kilofeet then? Why don't they just say that?
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When you convert to kilometers, things speed up.
Best not to hasten our own doom.
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Wouldn't it be easier if we all used FFF?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FFF_system
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Approx. 1.6094 km. Give or take a few cm.
For smaller distances/speeds, you can use eight fifths - this is what we always did.
For larger distances/speeds, you can just ask Google. (or wolframalpha)
https://www.google.co.uk/webhp... [google.co.uk]
321869 km/h
But, yeah, miles. Sheesh. Come on, USA - even Canada now uses km/h (since 1977). It's really just you and the Brits (didn't the USA, like, split from the Brits some years ago?)
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even Canada now uses km/h (since 1977)
Kilometres per hour? Luddites. They should be using kilometres per kilosecond.
Andromeda has A TRILLION STARS (Score:3)
Our galaxy has only a hundred billion. Knowing us we will go to war long before we collide, though.
PREPARE FOR WAR AGAINST THE ANDROMEDA GALAXY!
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The Milky Way is estimated to have 200 to 400 billion stars. However, just counting stars doesn't tell the whole story. The total mass of Andromeda is estimated at 1.5 x 10^12 solar masses, which is roughly double the 8.5 x 10^11 solar masses estimated for the Milky Way. Still pretty big, but not the 10x you are suggesting.
Of course, that is our best information at present. Historically, estimates have varied quite a bit. Back in 2006 there were a bunch of news articles stating that the Milky Way had f
"Study Details What Happens When Galaxies Collide" (Score:1)
I'm pretty sure Powerman 5000 [wikipedia.org] already covered this.
Never Tear Us Apart (Score:2)
Almost there... (Score:3, Insightful)
Just a few words shorter, and even /. users may read the article.
Btw. since galaxies are mostly empty space, "to collide" doesn't sound right, imho. Two galaxies "mingling" might be a better description. A star from galaxy A here, a star from galaxy B there, a cloud from galaxy A over here, a few 'minor' collisions here & there, etc. Kind of like how 2 clouds of powder would 'collide'. And of course taking place over a long time span.
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Not really empty space, something like 2 atoms per cc, which is enough that the gas compresses and triggers lots of star formation. From outside would look pretty spectacular, from inside, lots of radiation from all the new blue stars and supernova and likely sterilization of any inhabited planets.
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But once they "collide" (mingle), how can you still say that one galaxy is producing more stars than the other? I mean, doesn't it just become one big mess?
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Yes, that galaxy is indeed blueshifted. Who told you that "all the stars" are redshifted? When you look at the night sky, you'll see about the same number of blueshifted as redshifted stars, since the vast majority of them are in our own galaxy and we're all just revolving around the center. And the galaxies in our immediate vicinity are kind of clumping together, not expanding. When you look at objects outside our local cluster of galaxies, yes, those do all appear redshifted. The further they are, the mor
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Yes, I know who Hubble is. And Hubble's law [wikipedia.org] says that, for objects observed in deep space (more than 10 megaparsecs away), doppler-shift-measured velocity is approximately proportional to their distance to earth. It does not apply to our local neighbourhood.
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Stellar production rates change == "what happens"
What!? An Astronomy post not pitched in Medium? (Score:2)
BTW, the arms support electric currents (Score:1)
http://phys.org/news/2015-06-m... [phys.org]
Earths sky will have half dozen milky way streaks (Score:2)
Pronoun Trouble (Score:2)
Come on, people.
POSSESSIVE: my, your, his/her/its, our, your, their
CONTRACTIONS: I'm, you're, he's/she's/it's, we're, you're, they're
Put a sticky note on your monitor, tattoo this on the back of your hand, whatever it takes...
Rare occurrence (Score:2)