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Containing a number of galaxies however smaller than a cluster, galaxy teams could be engaging wide-field targets.
When Andromeda collides with the Milky Method, it should set off an incredible wave of star formation and fill Earth’s skies with new emission nebulae and open clusters, as depicted on this photoillustration. Credit score: NASA, ESA, Z. Levay and R. van der Marel (STScI), T. Hallas, and A. Mellinger
Don’t look now, however a head-on intergalactic collision is in our distant future. From observations, astronomers know that the Andromeda Galxay (M31) — the closest massive galaxy — is shifting towards our personal Milky Method. Their mutual gravitational pull makes a galaxy merger inevitable, beginning some 4 billion years from now. Such occasions are frequent all through the cosmos. We will see a lot of them in progress, typically as objects categorized as peculiar galaxies.
Simulations present that the gravitational dance between Andromeda and the Milky Method will distort the skies above Earth past recognition. Only a few of the celebrities in colliding galaxies truly collide catastrophically. As a substitute, the dominant type of interplay is gravitational. Streams of stars can be flung outward, creating tidal tails and bridges. And because the galaxies merge, the spiral constructions of each galaxies will steadily be erased till what stays is an elliptical supergalaxy — dubbed Milkomeda by researchers.
For extra on Milkomeda and the way it will change the view of any skygazers left on Earth, take a look at Avi Loeb and Thomas Cox’s story from our June 2008 challenge.
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