Author Topic: Nasa spots galaxy collision. (Read 1164 times)

Unorthodox · « **on:** August 16, 2013, 03:47:30 pm »

http://thespacereporter.com/2013/08/nasa-spots-dwarf-galaxy-ramming-into-a-large-spiral/

Quote

NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has detected a large cloud of hot gas in a galaxy approximately 60 million light years from our planet. The hot gas cloud is probably the result of a collision between a dwarf galaxy and a much bigger galaxy known as NGC 1232. If verified, this finding would mark the very first time such a collision has been spotted only in X-rays, and could have significance for figuring out how galaxies develop through similar collisions.

According to NASA, the collision between the dwarf galaxy and the spiral galaxy led to a shock wave similar to a sonic boom on Earth. The shock wave produced hot gas with a temperature of approximately six million degrees. The hot gas is revealed in purple in the image above, while the spiral galaxy can be seen in blue and white.

In close proximity to the head of the comet-shaped X-ray emission is an area containing several optically bright stars and improved X-ray emission. Star formation may have been activated by the shock wave, generating bright, massive stars. In that scenario X-ray emission would be produced by massive star winds and by the remnants of supernova explosions as massive stars evolve.

According to astronomers, it cannot be decided from the 2-D image whether the hot gas is compacted in a “thin pancake” or diffused over a large, spherical area. If the gas is a pancake, the mass is the same as forty thousand Suns. If the gas is distributed, it could be approximately three million times as massive as the Sun.

According to the space agency, the hot gas should continue to glow in X-rays for tens to hundreds of millions of years, contingent upon the geometry of the collision. The collision itself should terminate after approximately 50 million years. Thus, looking for large regions of hot gas in galaxies might be a way to determine the frequency of collisions with dwarf galaxies and to comprehend how significant such events are to galaxy development.

NASA notes that that the hot gas cloud could also have been generated by supernovas and hot winds from large numbers of massive stars, all situated on one side of the galaxy. However, the absence of radio, infrared and optical evidence suggests otherwise.

Unorthodox · « **Reply #1 on:** August 16, 2013, 03:48:24 pm »

Link to Chandra with pics and stuff.

http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2013/ngc1232/

Geo · « **Reply #2 on:** August 16, 2013, 07:48:41 pm »

Actuallly, there's no reason for NASA to look that far out. The Milky Ways appears to be at the first stages of a collision as well, with the Sagittarus Dwarf.