-
Asked by Galaxies to Jillian, Connor, Lidunka, Sarah, Steven on 15 Jun 2015. This question was also asked by ChrismdTGS, max, Constancexbo, 409frcc32.
-
Lidunka Vocadlo answered on 15 Jun 2015:
Galaxies don’t really crash into each other – in fact it is a bit of a non-event. Galaxies are made up of billions of stars, but these are all very far apart. So when one galaxy merges into another, almost nothing happens. You probably wouldn’t even notice. There would just be more stars and a few altered orbits and possibly a change of shape of the merged galaxy.
-
-
Connor Macrae answered on 15 Jun 2015:
Quiet a few things can happen, but not what you expect! You won’t get any stars crashing into each other, as the galaxy is really mostly empty space. You might get some stars thrown out due to gravity out into inter-galactic space. You would also stir up the gas in the galaxies that might ignite some new star formation. Eventually the two galaxies will have totally merged, become one single, but much bigger, galaxy.
-
Jillian Scudder answered on 18 Jun 2015:
The galaxies get pulled and sheared into a new shape by the gravitational force of the other galaxy, but the stars themselves almost never collide. The gas, however, does collide – and it can fall to the center of the galaxy and form a burst of bright, blue, new stars at the center of the galaxy. The black hole at the center of the galaxy might also get a bit of gas to try and absorb, but if that happens, most of that gas will get superheated and shot out of the galaxy in an ultra-high speed jet. It can be pretty dramatic!
Comments