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Astronomers observe merger of two galaxies


Owlscrying

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Ann Arbor, Mich. - The European Space Agency's orbiting X-ray telescope XXM-Newton and NASA's Chandra X-ray telescope have observed the merger of two galaxies.

The satellite data have led astronomer Renato Dupke and colleagues at the University of Michigan to conclude the clusters collided at a speed of more than 2,000 miles per second. That is interesting because some computer models suggest such speeds are impossible to reach by celestial objects.

When they collide -- believed to be a rare occurrence -- their internal gas is thrown out of equilibrium and, if unrecognized, causes underestimation of the mass by up to 20 percent.

That is important since the masses of the various galaxy clusters are used to estimate the cosmological parameters that describe how the universe expands. So identifying colliding systems is central to understanding the universe.

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BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Eh No! The one thing that colliding galaxies don't do is go bang. Galaxies mostly consist of lot's of nothing. They are disrupted when they collide but the actual stars very rarely collide.

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It was a joke, like a figure of speech, and i though people like you were smart enough to figure that out. geeeesh.

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It was a joke, like a figure of speech, and i though people like you were smart enough to figure that out. geeeesh.

We have smilies to indicate when we are making a joke. We also have rules about personal attacks and one word posts.

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great article owls :tu:

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nice find. but what will happen if the centers collide or merge? will a catastrophic event occur? but i think even with 2,000 m/s it'll be long time that the centers will merge or collide.

one last question for anyone who can answer this.

is the other galaxy counterclockwise and the other clockwise?

or are they both clockwise or both counterclockwise?

i'm just curious.

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is the other galaxy counterclockwise and the other clockwise?

or are they both clockwise or both counterclockwise?

Surprisingly, this article is very sloppily written. They're not seeing two galaxies colliding, they're seeing two galaxy clusters colliding (confusingly, the article seems to use the terms interchangeably). Galaxy clusters are large groups of galaxies bound together gravitationally. This is like two swarms of gnats merging into one swarm (where each gnat is an individual galaxy). So it doesn't make much sense to talk about whether the cluster itself is rotating clockwise or counterclockwise.

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Surprisingly, this article is very sloppily written. They're not seeing two galaxies colliding, they're seeing two galaxy clusters colliding (confusingly, the article seems to use the terms interchangeably). Galaxy clusters are large groups of galaxies bound together gravitationally. This is like two swarms of gnats merging into one swarm (where each gnat is an individual galaxy). So it doesn't make much sense to talk about whether the cluster itself is rotating clockwise or counterclockwise.

thanks.. darn.. sloppy article there. misleading me.. :lol: thanks Startraveler

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