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See the original image at apod.nasa.gov

Spiral Galaxies in Collision

apod.nasa.gov — Billions of years from now, only one of these two galaxies will remain. Until then, spiral galaxies NGC 2207 and IC 2163 will slowly pull each other apart, creating tides of matter, sheets of shocked gas, lanes of dark dust, bursts of star formation, and streams of cast-away stars.

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  • Bactame, on 04/20/2008, -1/+17It's hard to understand how such big things can exist and yet appear so handsomely majestic. They are saying the 'littler guy' on the right will be absorbed, in fact it used to rotate in the other clockwise direction. Neat.
    • crash331, on 04/20/2008, -0/+2http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJRc37D2ZZY
      Even more elegant and majestic. The fate of our Galaxy. Milky way starts on bottom. There was a really good animation I saw on the History Channel program "The Universe" that I have on my TiVo, but I can't find it online.
  • sc0rpi0n, on 04/20/2008, -3/+9One galaxy come. One galaxy go. Two galaxies kiss. One sleep.

    Pardon my first English narration... :D
    • threemagic, on 04/20/2008, -0/+8I will not eat green eggs and ham, Sam I Am?
      • pgalioni, on 04/20/2008, -1/+1WHAT A SET OF JUGS! I JUST LOVE SPACE! Will She EVER love me as much as I love her? sigh . . . .
  • sc0rpi0n, on 04/20/2008, -4/+6Let's team up to buy an insurance for our Milky Way galaxy before it's too late like what's happening with NGC 2207 and IC 2163. Poor galaxies... they will pay for hospitalization, funeral, damage, etc. all by themselves.

  • geuis2, on 04/20/2008, -0/+8I wonder if this is the equivalent of an industrial accident to super-advanced aliens.
    • silfiriel, on 04/20/2008, -2/+2nope it's not
    • muchachoburacho, on 04/20/2008, -0/+4oh crap somebody get the mop. we got sheets of shocked gas here.
  • loggedout, on 04/20/2008, -0/+6Everything involving the vastness of space is incredible. Because it's so mind-boggling, I could never make a career out of it. I'd go insane.
  • seanhive, on 04/20/2008, -1/+10The slowest-mo tackle ever
  • pagit, on 04/20/2008, -3/+1how long will it take the earth shattering kaboom to reach us?
    • trntman, on 04/20/2008, -0/+2there most likely wont even be one. the stars in those galaxies are so far apart that the chances of them colliding are pretty slim. try not to think of it as a collision but more of a merger.
    • Daz3, on 04/21/2008, -0/+2If there was some kind of "kaboom" in the form of a gravitational wave, it would travel to us at the speed of light and therefore the number of years it would take to reach us is the same as the distance (in light years) that the epicenter of said "kaboom" is from us.
  • threemagic, on 04/20/2008, -0/+2I don't know. To me it looks a lot like the smaller one is actually going behind it..
  • zaptoman, on 04/20/2008, -5/+1Or - He's WATCHING you...
  • br0wnstar, on 04/20/2008, -7/+1Boobs?
  • Oakes, on 04/20/2008, -0/+4Question for anyone who knows about astronomy...is it true that when galaxies pass through each other, there are little or no collisions due to how spacious they are?

    EDIT: Sorry I'm retarded. The caption answered my question.
    • shoverbj, on 04/20/2008, -0/+4I'm taking an astronomy course right now, and we just talked about this. The chances of anything colliding (stars, planets, interstellar space dust) are, pardon the pun, astronomical. We computed the probability to be somewhere near 1:10^16, so yeah, nothing that spectacular is going to happen.
    • uiguy3, on 04/20/2008, -0/+2Yeah because the space between stars is around 10^7 times their diameters it is highly unlikely for them to collide. However the space between galaxies relative to their sizes is much smaller so galaxies collide much more frequently.
      • scoffey, on 04/20/2008, -0/+1the space between galaxies is about 100 times their diameter...

        meaning that extra-galactic space is more densely populated with galaxies than galactic space is with stars, something that's always blown my mind quite a bit
    • Aeroslin, on 04/20/2008, -0/+1Collisions no, gravitational effects, yes. As we've seen in other observations, the collisions of two galaxies often causes the galaxy to create more new stars as the dust and gas from both, coalesce.
  • mikeman10001, on 04/20/2008, -0/+6how about our galaxy colling with Andromeda... (it will actually happen relatively shortly)
    • uiguy3, on 04/20/2008, -0/+4If you consider a few billion years short.
    • Pillage, on 04/20/2008, -0/+3Why would our galaxy collide with a crappy sci-fi show?
    • Aeroslin, on 04/20/2008, -0/+2Yeah, if you were a galaxy then it would occur shortly.
  • spancho, on 04/20/2008, -1/+21It boggles the mind to think about all the crazy ***** going on in the photo that you cant see. How many galactic empires hide among those stars?
  • Emnsta, on 04/20/2008, -0/+5The galaxies are giving me an evil look
  • sam8988378, on 04/20/2008, -0/+5This is so beautiful. Since it's the height of conceit to think we are the only sentient life forms, it's very possible that there are inhabited planets in these galaxies. I would love to know what they think about this.
    • Yuska, on 04/20/2008, -0/+6Probably something along the lines of "*****!"
    • uiguy3, on 04/20/2008, -0/+4I bet they could be thinking a number of things depending on the how far they've advanced technologically.
      1. See ya (i.e. they're leaving thier galaxy if they're really advanced and their planet or planets are in danger)
      2. Oh boy (if they're like us and have only limited space travel capabilities but can still comprehend what's happening
      3. Look at the pretty stars (if they're not yet at the point of understanding the heavens)
    • crash331, on 04/20/2008, -0/+1I wonder if you would even be able to tell if you live in a galaxy during a collision. I'm sure it would ***** with the tides, but this collision happens over millions of years. Would you be able to live in a planet like Earth and survive a collision?
      • scoffey, on 04/20/2008, -0/+1absolutely, when galaxies collide they essentially interact only gravitationally - the chances of stars or other galactic matter colliding is extremely low. i doubt the effects on earth would even be noticeable, especially considering the scale of time.
  • nollek, on 04/20/2008, -0/+5 I love astronomy ***** like this.
  • olbap, on 04/20/2008, -1/+1And out of this mixture of universal matter will rise the LORDS OF CHAOS - ready to do battle with all those who conform to the will of LAW!!!!!
  • MoeWasHere, on 04/20/2008, -0/+2It looks like an angry Owl.
  • drpunkerz, on 04/20/2008, -1/+13Space *****.
    • jedmed, on 04/20/2008, -0/+1Definitive proof: John Belushi is still alive.
  • ncapone, on 04/20/2008, -0/+2Welcome new galaxy!
  • LtCarter47, on 04/20/2008, -0/+1I'm rooting for you little guy! Hang in there!
  • CptCheerios, on 04/20/2008, -0/+1I See You!
  • wubblie, on 04/20/2008, -0/+0TJ Eckleburg
  • daeyeth, on 04/20/2008, -1/+2"Space *****"

    Ah yes, the profound intelligence of the Digg community
    • ghank, on 04/21/2008, -0/+1"reply button"
      Ah yes, the profound intelligence of the Digg community
  • jamessavik, on 04/20/2008, -0/+2That's in store for our own galaxy in the far future when the Milky Way collides with the Andromeda galaxy (M31).
  • tibs, on 04/20/2008, -0/+0Reminds me of Michelangelo's, The Creation of Adam.
    http://lh4.ggpht.com/tibszero/SAu7wdxnb_I/AAAAAAAA ...
  • Aeroslin, on 04/20/2008, -0/+1Those of you that live in the southern hemisphere get to see two dwarf galaxies that the milky way has since absorbed, the megallanic clouds. To us northern peoples we have Andromeda that is slowly moving towards us. In a half a billion years, it is, I think, quite feasible that our night sky will be dominated by the light of Andromeda as it bears down on us.

    That's a wild though.
  • mrosen310, on 04/21/2008, -0/+1i pick the one on the left who is with me
  • estebanayala, on 04/21/2008, -0/+0we live in the milky way galaxy?and those are 2 galaxies colliding?well in those galaxies are there other planets and people like us? that would suck
  • triccare, on 04/24/2008, -0/+1Want to see more? See the release today from the Hubble Space Telescope: Galaxies Gone Wild: http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/ ...
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