When Galaxies Collide

neutron_p writes "An international team of scientists announced today, they observed a nearby head-on collision of two galaxy clusters. The clusters smashed together thousands of galaxies and trillions of stars. It is the most powerful events ever witnessed. Such collisions are second only to the Big Bang in total energy output. The event was captured with the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton observatory. Scientists are calling the event the perfect cosmic storm: galaxy clusters that collided like two high-pressure weather fronts and created hurricane-like conditions, tossing galaxies far from their paths and churning shock waves of 100-million-degree gas through intergalactic space."

Comments

Re:I guess..

[bandy]

It's not as if we wouldn't see it coming. Of course, if we're still stuck on this rock...

And don't forget the wipe-out-nearly-all-life gamma ray bursts! No advance warning on those puppies.

Big Bang dead?

[SpaceLifeForm]

It the universe is expanding due to the Big Bang, then why would galaxy clusters ever meet?

Re:Big Bang dead?

[Vaevictis666]

Think two cars driving along the highway, in the same direction (neighbors expanding away from big bang). Except that the one on the right is drifting slightly left, and sideswipes the other. Eventually. And then the crash goes into slo-mo for the next few thousand million years.

Re:Wouldn't the Galaxies just pass through each ot

[dougmc]

wouldn't the galaxies just pass through each other without colliding at all?

Generally, yes. But gravity would still be in effect, and so the galaxies would certainly be twisted and torn up and the like.

How would it affect the Earth? Well, as long as no stars come too close to us, we'd probably not really be affected at all. We might get thrown out of our galaxy or something, but as long as nothing smacks right into our planet or our sun, and nothing distorts our orbit signifigantly, I wouldn't expect any real problems other than the nighttime sky changing ...

... of course, this would all happen or not happen over 100 million years, so any changes would be very gradual, at least as long as no stars get within a light year or so from us.

Re:I guess..

[Cecil]

And don't forget the wipe-out-nearly-all-life gamma ray bursts! No advance warning on those puppies.

Although that's only because we don't know anything about them.

If one started happening near enough for it to bother us, I suspect we'd notice *something* going on beforehand. Energy can't just appear suddenly and randomly, it has to come from some source. And gamma ray bursts are a LOT of energy. I'm way too lazy to actually look it up, but I think it's at least on the scale of like, if an antimatter star collided with a matter star and they instantly turned each other into 100% pure energy at e=mc^2 (m is enormous, c^2 is enormous, guess how big their product will be), it still wouldn't be enough.

I mean, I'm with you on the whole "they're astoundingly big and powerful" thing, but I suspect for that very reason one wouldn't just pop up nearby without us noticing something weird well beforehand.

Re:Wouldn't the Galaxies just pass through each ot

[Anonymous Coward]

What intests me is the how the merging would affect time in the regions that came across intense gravity fields. IANP, any info