Three distant galaxies collide through the universe, in a stunning new image captured by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.
This cosmic collapse is known as a trigalactic merger, when three galaxies slowly come close to each other and rip each other apart with competing gravitational forces. Mergers like this are common throughout the universe, and all large galaxies – including our own, galaxies Milky Way They owe their scale to violent mergers like these.
Chaotic as they sound, mergers like these are more about creation than destruction. When gas from the three neighboring galaxies collides and condenses, a vast sea of material from which new stars will emerge is collected at the center of the newly united galaxy.
In the meantime, the existing stars will mostly survive the collapse unscathed; While the tug-of-war between the three galaxies will distort the orbital trajectories of many of the stars in existence, there is plenty of space between those stars that relatively few of them are likely to collide, Live Science previously reported.
The group of galaxies shown above is called IC 2431, and it is located about 681 million light years From Earth in Cancer, According to NASA. Astronomers discovered the merger thanks to a citizen science project called Galaxy Zoo, which invited more than 100,000 volunteers to classify images of 900,000 galaxies captured by the Hubble telescope that had not been thoroughly examined. The crowdsourcing project accomplished in 175 days what would have taken astronomers years to achieve, according to NASA, and the initiative has already yielded a number of strange and exciting discoveries, like this one.
Studying galaxy mergers can help astronomers better understand the past and future of the Milky Way. The Milky Way is believed to have devoured more than a dozen galaxies over the past 12 billion years, including during the sausage merging process known as Gaia, Live Science previously reported.
Meanwhile, our galaxy looks set to merge with the nearby Andromeda galaxy about 4.5 billion years from now. The merger will completely change the night sky a land But it could potentially leave the solar system unharmed, according to NASA.
Originally published on Live Science.
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Mwangaza wa nyota tatu za mbali unagongana katika ulimwengu, katika picha mpya ya kushangaza iliyopigwa na darubini ya anga ya NASA ya Hubble. Mshuko huu wa nyota unaitwa kuunganishwa kwa nyota tatu, ambapo nyota tatu zinakaribiana polepole na kugawanyika kwa nguvu za uvutano. Kuunganishwa kama hii ni kawaida katika ulimwengu wote, na galaxies zote kubwa - ikiwa ni pamoja na yetu wenyewe, galaxies Milky Way Wao deni ukubwa wao kwa kuunganishwa vurugu kama hizi. Ingawa vinaonekana kuwa vya fujo, muungano kama huo unahusisha zaidi kuumba kuliko kuharibu. Gesi kutoka kwa nyota tatu za jirani zinapogongana na kufyatua, bahari kubwa ya nyenzo ambayo nyota mpya zitatokea hukusanywa katikati ya nyota mpya iliyounganishwa. "Wakati huo huo, nyota zilizopo zitatoka kwenye kuanguka bila kuharibiwa; wakati vita kati ya nyota tatu zitafanya njia za nyota nyingi zilizopo ziwe na mviringo, kuna nafasi nyingi kati ya nyota hizo ambazo ni chache sana ambazo zinaweza kugongana. """ Kundi la nyota lililoonyeshwa hapo juu linaitwa IC2431 na liko karibu miaka milioni 681 ya mwanga kutoka duniani katika Cancer, kulingana na NASA. "Wanasayansi waligundua kuunganishwa kwa nyota hizo kwa msaada wa mradi wa sayansi unaoitwa ""Galaxy Zoo,"" ambao uliwaomba wajitoleaji zaidi ya 100,000 kuorodhesha picha za nyota 900,000 zilizochukuliwa na darubini ya Hubble ambazo hazijachunguzwa kwa undani." "Mfano wa ""crowdsourcing"" ulifanyika katika siku 175 na imepita miaka mingi, na tayari imesababisha uvumbuzi wa ajabu na wa kusisimua." Kujifunza kuunganishwa kwa galaksi kunaweza kuwasaidia wataalamu wa nyota kuelewa vizuri zaidi wakati uliopita na wakati ujao wa galaksi ya Milky Way. "Mlipuko wa galaxy ya Milky Way umeathiri zaidi ya nyota 12 za dunia katika miaka ya 12 iliyopita, na pia katika ""mchakato wa kuunganisha"" unaojulikana kama ""Gaia.""" Kwa mujibu wa uchunguzi huo, galaksi ya Andromeda inaelekea kuungana na galaksi ya Milky Way katika miaka bilioni 4.5 ijayo. Kuunganishwa kwa sayari hiyo kutabadilisha kabisa anga la usiku la dunia, lakini inaweza kuifanya mfumo wa jua usiharibike, kulingana na NASA. Awali kuchapishwa juu ya Sayansi ya Kuishi. <unk> Mwanafunzi mwenye kujitoa. Mtetezi wa Bacon. Mtaalamu wa bia. Mfanyabiashara wa matatizo. Yeye huanguka mara nyingi. Mshabiki wa kahawa wa kawaida. <unk>