For all of you who don’t think Astronomy is cool…


Multiple space telescopes teamed up to capture this spectacular galactic collision. UniverseToday described what’s going on.  Read the original article at universetoday.com

[FULL DISCLOSURE: I only took two astronomy classes in college If we have any astronomers in the audience, please correct and append my explanations.]

1) “GALACTIC COLLISION”

That enough is hard to imagine. It’s not just two objects colliding, or even two solar systems colliding, it’s a “galactic collision” as in multiple galaxies each with who knows how many solar systems smashing into each other.

2) CAN I GET A FAST FORWARD BUTTON?

This has been going on for so long now (100s of millions of years actually) that in the meantime, some stars which were created by the collision have already lived a quick few million year lifetime and died as an exploding supernova.

3) IF THAT WASN’T ENOUGH

The dozen-plus bright point-like lights in this picture are apparently material being pulled into black holes (some of which have 100x the mass of our sun!). nuff said?

4) LIFE IS (WAY) MORE THAN WHAT MEETS THE EYE

Paraphrasing one very smart commenter, “in order for the spiral ‘antennae’ in the top galaxy to hold their shape, scientists claim that this galaxy must be composed of more than 96% dark matter”. If you’e never heard about dark matter, look it up. Basically, only 4% of this galaxy exists in our known universe. That other 96% of the matter is therefore either simply beyond the capabilities of human measurement, or could fall under the more badass possibility, that it exists in some other parallel universe altogether.

In summary: Wow.

~Daniel

PS. Deep thought question of the day:

What do you think – if the 96% of this antennae galaxy is in a parallel universe, would it be affected by its 4% evil-twin getting smashed at the party?