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Astronomy Picture of the Day -- The Colliding Spiral Galaxies of Arp 271
NASA ^ | August 25, 2013 | (see photo credit)

Posted on 08/25/2013 6:08:42 AM PDT by SunkenCiv

Explanation: What will become of these galaxies? Spiral galaxies NGC 5426 and NGC 5427 are passing dangerously close to each other, but each is likely to survive this collision. Typically when galaxies collide, a large galaxy eats a much smaller galaxy. In this case, however, the two galaxies are quite similar, each being a sprawling spiral with expansive arms and a compact core. As the galaxies advance over the next tens of millions of years, their component stars are unlikely to collide, although new stars will form in the bunching of gas caused by gravitational tides. Close inspection of the above image taken by the 8-meter Gemini-South Telescope in Chile shows a bridge of material momentarily connecting the two giants. Known collectively as Arp 271, the interacting pair spans about 130,000 light years and lies about 90 million light-years away toward the constellation of Virgo. Recent predictions hold that our Milky Way Galaxy will undergo a similar collision with the neighboring Andromeda Galaxy in a few billion years.

August 25, 2013

(Excerpt) Read more at 129.164.179.22 ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: andromedagalaxy; apod; arp271; astronomy; chile; haltonarp; milkywaygalaxy; ngc5426; ngc5427; science; virgo
[Credit & Copyright: Gemini Observatory, GMOS-South, NSF]

1 posted on 08/25/2013 6:08:43 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
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To: brytlea; cripplecreek; decimon; bigheadfred; KoRn; Grammy; married21; steelyourfaith; Mmogamer; ...

A Halton Arp object!
The Big One

2 posted on 08/25/2013 6:09:33 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (It's no coincidence that some "conservatives" echo the hard left.)
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To: SunkenCiv
Trivia fact: when galaxies collide the chances of individual stars hitting each other is practically zero.
3 posted on 08/25/2013 6:25:50 AM PDT by JPG (Obama, Juan and Linda Do Egypt.)
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To: SunkenCiv

4 posted on 08/25/2013 6:54:58 AM PDT by Slyfox (Without the Right to Life, all other rights are meaningless.)
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To: Slyfox

Nice!


5 posted on 08/25/2013 7:31:02 AM PDT by BenLurkin (This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both.)
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To: SunkenCiv

“You didn’t signal!”

“Yeah well you were texting while spiraling!”


6 posted on 08/25/2013 7:37:38 AM PDT by Larry Lucido
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To: SunkenCiv

Fascinating!


7 posted on 08/25/2013 8:25:04 AM PDT by onyx (Please Support Free Republic - Donate Monthly! If you want on Sarah Palin's Ping List, Let Me know!)
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To: SunkenCiv

8 posted on 08/25/2013 8:32:26 AM PDT by P.O.E. (Pray for America)
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To: JPG
Trivia fact: when galaxies collide the chances of individual stars hitting each other is practically zero.

Yep, but I bet anyone on an earth-like planet would see some spectacular meteor storms.

9 posted on 08/25/2013 8:43:00 AM PDT by null and void (Frequent terrorist attacks OR endless government snooping and oppression? We can have both!)
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To: null and void
True. Also imagine the spectacular view of the approaching galaxy that would fill the entire sky.
10 posted on 08/25/2013 9:17:28 AM PDT by JPG (Obama, Juan and Linda Do Egypt.)
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To: JPG

Indeed and also imagine what it would look like if a big bolide struck a shallow sea:

Imagine a 120 mile wide crater torn open in the bottom of a shallow sea.

Where does the sea water go?

It tries to fill the hole.

The bottom of the hole is orange yellow to white hot.

What does sea water do when you pour it onto a 2000°F pool of molten rock? It boils and expands 1740 times in volume.

Where does this extra suddenly created volume go? It’s on a rock floor, it can’t go down. It is surrounded by a ring of crater wall and a high wall of in-pouring seawater, it can’t go sideways.

The crater makes what is in effect a rocket nozzle. The only path is up. Up into space.

It could take, say, forty days and forty nights before the fraction of the vast amount of water blasted into space that was going to make a return trip stopped settling back to earth.

Imagine what an evening sky would look like with trillions of gallons of frozen droplets of ice in a orbital cloud with raw sunlight shining on it.

I’d say a vast horizon-to-horizon ground to zenith daylight bright rainbow...


11 posted on 08/25/2013 9:30:33 AM PDT by null and void (Frequent terrorist attacks OR endless government snooping and oppression? We can have both!)
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To: SunkenCiv

What is so frustrating about such beauty and wonderment is that it occurs over enormous spans of time. Sure, a snapshot is breathtaking, but what I want is time-lapse photography over, say, a million years. :-)


12 posted on 08/25/2013 10:05:01 AM PDT by SgtHooper (The last thing I want to do is hurt you. But it's still on the list.)
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To: Larry Lucido

“I said ‘Bud Light’.”


13 posted on 08/25/2013 11:28:07 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (It's no coincidence that some "conservatives" echo the hard left.)
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