NASA Photographs Big Galactic Collision

One of the biggest galactic collisions ever observed takes place at the center of this image. The four blobs in the middle are galaxies that have begun to merge into a single gargantuan galaxy.

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This article really caught my eye. Galaxies merging????? Any thoughts anyone?

Hmm i'm not sure this thread belongs in this forum.

Perhaps in the Space Exploration forum would be more appropriate.

Unless ET's are playing pool with galaxies now

i was not sure where to post this. In figured it should be under the aliens and ufo section because i don't believe the merging of galaxies is natural.

Dude this is OLD news!!

Don't take that the wrong way - I mean to say its at least 5,000,000,000 light years away - so it all went on err some time ago.

Lets be silly with numbers.

5 bill years = 1,825,000,000,000 days
= 43,800,000,000,000 hours
= 2,628,000,000,000,000 minutes
= 157,680,000,000,000,000 seconds ago

One light year = 9,461,000,000,000,000 km
5 bill light years = 47,305,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 km away

Three of the galaxies are about the size of the Milky Way, while the fourth is three times as large.

The main disk of the Milky Way Galaxy is about 80,000 to 100,000 light-years in diameter, about 250,000 to 300,000 light-years in circumference, and outside the Galactic core, about 2,300–2,600 light-years in thickness

wiki

me zero key has fallen off

Originally posted by Syntaxstealth
i was not sure where to post this. In figured it should be under the aliens and ufo section because i don't believe the merging of galaxies is natural.

There are a lot of images of Galaxies merging, this is nothing new. What makes you think it isn't natural?

I dont get the point of the article..its nice 'n all but its not like we can actually see them move in REAL TIME..it'll take trillions of years probably so really, its just a silly waste of time to even worry about it

The merging of galaxies is a very natural event, particularly in regions of galactic clusters. Not all galaxies are spiral, though the merging of spiral forms is more 'dramatic' to us.

Galaxies are mostly empty space, so the merging of galaxies is not an entirely cataclysmic event - most of the stars and their orbiting celestial bodies pass by each other, though the higher concentration in the centers of the galaxies means some inevitable encounters. The galactic arms often pass through each other unscathed, although some of the gravity fields experience disruption and lasting effects.

I still don't understand why this is in the Aliens & UFO's, however. Although we welcome the post - and poster to ATS (and the opportunity to discuss an interesting astronomical event), this is not the location for this thread.

In the future, I suggest the OP, SyntaxStealth in this case, simply enter a keyword or two from his topic of interest into the search field at the top of the page and let the results guide his choice of thread to post in. There are many areas on space/astronomy, etc. that this thread may have found a more appropriate home in (and more enthusiastic participation as well).

In any case - thanks for posting on ATS - and keep looking up!

i remember reading once that our solar system is not part of the milky way, but part of a sub galaxy that is being swallowed by the milky way

i'll search and come back with teh linkage....

P.S. here's you go....

curezone.com...

[edit on 7-8-2007 by wenfieldsecret]

One-liner :

Why is this in the A&UFO forum ????

Bewildered,
Lex

PS : I'll be a volunteer Mod.

reply to post by Lexion


because i put it there