When Worlds Collide

[RedNax]

Wikipedia's picture of the day. Just had to post it. It looks so awesome, in the sense that its a real photo (or I think, either way, it still looks awesome ^^). The full-resolution image is 3915 ? 3885 and its 13 meg, so there's no way I'm posting it here =P

http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p110/ReddNaxx/604px-Antennae_galaxies_xl.jpg


Antennae Galaxies

The two Antennae Galaxies (NGC 4038 on the left and NGC 4039 on the right) are a pair of interacting galaxies in the constellation Corvus that are undergoing a galactic collision. They are known as the 'Antennae' because the two long tails of stars, gas, and dust thrown out of the galaxies as a result of the collision resemble the antennae of an insect. The nuclei of the two galaxies are joining to become one supergalaxy. This is likely the future of our Milky Way when it collides with Andromeda.

Photo credit: Hubble Space Telescope

[Antharias]

It would be a real picture as I have seen it in a book if I remember correctly with the same heading.

You have just got to love the beauty that can be produced in space. :)

[Chevron]

Beauty? yes. But I like to think of the destruction. Two galaxies colliding.

[Antharias]

The destruction of two galaxies that will probably result in the formation of a new one. It is the destruction that is beautiful to look upon.

[Azimuth]

I was devastated to learn recently that these extraordinary photographs of the far reaches of space are artificially coloured. And there I thought galaxies were pink and stuff. :(

[Miktar]

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e379/Miktar/isfullofstarzzzz-2.jpg

[dislekcia]

Artificially coloured because of spectrum shift. We can't see all the radiation that a nebula or similar puts out because we can't see in the radio, IR and UV spectra, so all astronomers do is shift all the observed frequencies to map them to our visual range... Sometimes they don't even have to do that to get those truly amazing colours. But if a galaxy isn't pink like that, it might well be 5fm coloured ;)

And no, two galaxies colliding isn't overly destructive on our scales. You generally don't have many star-local systems being too disrupted, it's more the solar-system magnetospheres that get hugely stressed, so you might be bathed in the odd swath of cosmic radiation... Plus that collision has been going on for millions of years, these things take a while ;)

-D

[Miktar]

More than 6000 years, you would say?

[Gambit]

More than 6000 years, you would say?

Just about... :)

[wir]

I was devastated to learn recently that these extraordinary photographs of the far reaches of space are artificially coloured. And there I thought galaxies were pink and stuff.
Wha-?

Aww, I didn't know either.
Some of those pics are B-E-A-Utiful.

[ShadowMaster]

The beauty of our world and the universe around us continues to astounish me.

[MrDeVil_909]

For people who like pretty space picture check out the gallery on HubbleSite (http://hubblesite.org/) It is a pretty interesting site with tons of awesome pics and wall-papers.