Galaxies Collide

[Bruce551]

New Galaxy Images Released for Hubble's 18th Birthday
Arp 240 is a pair of similar-size spiral galaxies, NGC 5257 and NGC 5258. The galaxies are visibly interacting with each other via a bridge of dim stars. Both galaxies harbor supermassive black holes in their centers. Arp 240 is located in the constellation Virgo, approximately 300 million light-years away. (With the exception of a few foreground stars from our own Milky Way all the objects in this image are galaxies.)



Arp 272 is a collision between two spiral galaxies, NGC 6050 and IC 1179, that are linked by their swirling arms. They are part of the Hercules Galaxy Cluster, which itself is part of one of the largest known structures in the universe: the so-called Great Wall. Arp 272 is located some 450 million light-years away from Earth.

http://www.wired.com/science/space/m...=6&slideView=7

And we think we have big problems

[AAAum]

And we think we have big problems

what are those problems?

"Arp 272 is located some 450 million light-years away from Earth".... i'm not sure how long it would take till the collision occurres... also i'd rather think that it's not "our" problem.... because it would happen after we die.... more than a decade or a century....

[grezzzy_greer]

Hi mate - excellent images...thanks for digging them out...! I wonder what has happened to those galaxies by now... it must be exciting and also frustrating for astronomers to realise that they are looking through a window into the far distant past, but can't actually see what is happening "now" all that way away.

On our holiday in Australia we called in to see the radio telescope at Parkes in western New South Wales. Incidentally it featured in the movie "The Dish" with Sam Neil, but of course it's real work is far more important than merely acting as a communications station for a space flight - even one as important as the landing on the moon.

The Parkes radio telescope is also part of the huge Australia Telescope project that links many radio telescope systems together over a large area, effectively generating a much larger "virtual" radio telescope.

See http://www.atnf.csiro.au/

We also travelled via Coonabarabran north of Parkes; it is the home of the Siding Springs optical telescope facility, one of the leading optical telescope installations in Australia.

See http://www.mso.anu.edu.au/info/sso/

[zeusbheld]

And we think we have big problems

what are those problems?

"Arp 272 is located some 450 million light-years away from Earth".... i'm not sure how long it would take till the collision occurres... also i'd rather think that it's not "our" problem.... because it would happen after we die.... more than a decade or a century....

i think he means that if there is intelligent life in those galaxy, then our problems pale compared to theirs.

but given that the light from that galaxy takes a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG time to get here, perhaps it is more correct to conclude they *had* problems (if there was indeed a they to have those problems).

[Hobbes]

Smashing!

[funky_house]

And we think we have big problems

what are those problems?

"Arp 272 is located some 450 million light-years away from Earth".... i'm not sure how long it would take till the collision occurres... also i'd rather think that it's not "our" problem.... because it would happen after we die.... more than a decade or a century....

At 450 million light years away. i.e 450 million years at the speed of light, I somehow think that it will be a lot longer than a century before this thing evers bothers us.

[eagle]

Our own Milky Way is heading for a collision with Andromeda another huge spiralling giant !!!! WHen this happens neither galaxy will ever be the same and the orbits of all the planets including Earth will be changed forever. Of course this will happen in a few trillion years or so :shock:

[Bruce551]

Could be millions of Star Ships using Solar Wind are headed this way. I hope our new visitors will not be to disappointed with us, given the way we manage our planet.

[zeusbheld]

Could be millions of Star Ships using Solar Wind are headed this way. I hope our new visitors will not be to disappointed with us, given the way we manage our planet.

i doubt they're fast enough to get here befoer we're extinct.

[sushi_romance]

Could be millions of Star Ships using Solar Wind are headed this way. I hope our new visitors will not be to disappointed with us, given the way we manage our planet.

Who would complain about a warm welcome.