Two galaxies drifted too close together between 100 and 200 million years ago, and began to drag at and disrupt one another’s structure and shape
At first glance,it looks like a giant rollercoaster loop.
However, this incredible image actually shows a ‘river’ of Sun-like stars that has been pulled deep into space by the gravitational tug of a bypassing galaxy
The golden loop is made of sun-like stars that have been pulled deep into space, far from the galaxy’s centre.
Experts say the galaxy, called NGC 7714, has witnessed some violent and dramatic events in its recent past.
Tell-tale signs of this brutality can be seen in NGC 7714’s strangely shaped arms, and in the smoky golden haze that stretches out from the galactic centre, they say.
The culprit is a smaller companion named NGC 7715, which lies just out of the frame of this image.
As a result, a ring and two long tails of stars have emerged from NGC 7714, creating a bridge between the two galaxies. This bridge acts as a pipeline, funnelling material from NGC 7715 towards its larger companion and feeding bursts of star formation. Most of the star-forming activity is concentrated at the bright galactic centre, although the whole galaxy is sparking new stars.
The galaxy is located approximately 100 million light-years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Pisces.
Astronomer believe that our Galaxy will also collide with its companion galaxy Andromeda after 4 billion years . Here is the Simulation of Galactic collision
Source : Dailymail , io9
Simulation is very cool, isn’t it;)
yeah but in reality it may not look cool like that
You know what i mean .
Because entire process will take billions of year to complete.
What is the meaning of billions years, my dear Earthling friend? It happens in the blinking of an eye for an some of extraterrestrials;) Unfortunately, I am not one of them. And, you know I am joking:)
I suppose, but who’s going to be so petty as to go back afterwards and grade our simulations for accuracy?