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Study Details What Happens When Galaxies Collide

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.

5 of 52 comments (clear)

  1. Where baby stars come from. by sharkbiter · · Score: 4, Funny

    When a papa galaxy and a mama galaxy love each other very much...

  2. Oh. Darn. by NoNonAlphaCharsHere · · Score: 3, Funny

    I assumed this was a video of Samsung phones being fired at each other.

  3. On behalf of the rest of the world by Swampash · · Score: 3, Funny

    What is a "mile"?

  4. Almost there... by Alwin+Henseler · · 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.

  5. Re:spectrum by michelcolman · · Score: 3, Informative

    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 more redshifted they appear. And that indeeds indicates that the universe is expanding. But in our local neighbourhood, there's plenty of blueshifted stuff.