galactic merger – Astronomy Now

A captivating view of the Heron Galaxy as a gravitational tug of war plays out

13 December 2019 Astronomy Now

Two interacting galaxies, distorted in an ongoing gravitational tug of war, present a captivating vista as observed by the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii, taking on the shape of a graceful heron in the northern sky.

Record-setting ultra-massive black hole found at heart of galaxy cluster

5 December 2019 Astronomy Now

The central elliptical galaxy in a cluster 700 million light years away harbours a record-setting black hole with the mass of 40 billion Suns.

A galactic train wreck with three supermassive black holes

23 November 2019 Astronomy Now

A third supermassive black hole has been found near the heart of an ongoing collision of three massive galaxies 300 million light years from Earth.

ALMA spots merging galaxies in infant universe

18 June 2019 Astronomy Now

The ALMA radio telescope array has spotted what appears to be the merger of two galaxies in the infant universe, the earliest such encounter yet observed.

The Sun expected to ride out a looming galactic merger

4 January 2019 Astronomy Now

A collision between the Milky Way and the Large Magellanic Cloud in about 1.5 billion years likely will re-energize the supermassive black hole lurking in our galaxy’s core.

Large Magellanic Cloud may be result of past galactic merger

18 September 2018 Astronomy Now

Computer simulations indicated the Large Cloud of Magellan may have merged with another luminous galaxy three to five billion years ago, a scenario that explains unusual stellar motions and ages.

Milky Way no longer ‘little brother’ to Andromeda

15 February 2018 Astronomy Now

Studies of fast-moving stars in the Andromeda galaxy indicate the huge spiral is less massive than previously believed and more a twin of the Milky Way than a big brother.

Galactic David and Goliath

28 July 2017 Astronomy Now

The gravitational dance between two galaxies in our local neighbourhood has led to intriguing visual features in both as witnessed in this new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image. The tiny NGC 1510 and its colossal neighbour NGC 1512 are at the beginning of a lengthy merger, a crucial process in galaxy evolution.

Hubble sees starburst in the maelstrom of a galactic merger

1 February 2016 Astronomy Now

This Hubble image is of the peculiar galaxy NGC 1487, lying about 30 million light-years away. We are witnessing the possible merger of several dwarf galaxies into a new single galaxy. Its appearance is dominated by large areas of bright blue stars, illuminating the patches of gas that gave them life. This burst of star formation may well have been triggered by the merger.

Hubble captures a galactic waltz

27 November 2015 Astronomy Now

This curious galaxy — known by the seemingly random jumble of letters and numbers 2MASX J16270254+4328340 — has been captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope dancing the crazed dance of a galactic merger. The galaxy has merged with another galaxy leaving a fine mist, made of millions of stars, spewing from it in long trails.