Image showing two galaxies crashing into each other.

news.yahoo.com...

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The newly discovered collision of two galaxies millions of years ago, which sparked rings of fire that are still expanding, may offer new clues on the origins of the universe, astronomers said on Wednesday.

New images of the Andromeda Galaxy were captured by an infrared camera aboard the Spitzer Space Telescope and are described in the science journal 'Nature'.

The pictures offer fresh insight into the ever-changing nature of galaxies, said Harvard University astrophysicist Giovanni Fazio.

Fazio, the mastermind behind the Spitzer, is considered one of the world's top space pioneers.

"We thought it was a plain, ordinary galaxy with two companions around it. But now we understand its structure. It will be used as a computer model to understand and study the early universe," Fazio said.

The cosmic crash is believed to have happened 210 million years ago when dinosaurs roamed the earth, but is a relatively recent occurrence in the grander scheme of time, scientists said.

Wicked!!! Wonder if our galaxy could crashed into another galaxy anytime soon (meaning a million years). Lucky it takes a long time for both galaxies to become into one. Wonder what our perception be if our galaxy was in the process of a crash. Probably see like a hundred stars roaming around our planet or passing by.

very interesting. exploration of space, and our photographic excursion into the universe via hubble are what keep us , at least for a small time, from thinking ourselves too important in the scheme of things. astronomy is one of the coolest sciences we have, i wish more people would pay attention to it.



optimus

Our Milky Way Galaxy is supposed to collide with Andromeda, but not for a couple of billion years. Here is an article on a computer model that scientists have done.

www.space.com...

Here are more images of colliding gallaxies.

www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu...

It seems to happen more often than you would think.

The other supposed surprising thing and indeed when we hit Andromeda, very few stars and planets will actually physically collide due to the distances between the matter, the bigger fallout comes with all the upset gravity from the extra mass flying around, instead of hitting your planet, it'll sling shot you away from your sun or something else rather gruesome or perhaps nothing. Theres a good chance of getting away with it.

[edit on 29/10/06 by Prote]