galaxy merger – Astronomy Now

Small black holes in colliding dwarf galaxies may be source of gravity waves

27 February 2020 Astronomy Now

Merging low-mass dwarf galaxies in the distant past could lead black hole collisions that would generate the sort of gravity waves detected to date.

Astronomers spot three supermassive black holes on collision course

30 September 2019 Astronomy Now

Astronomers using X-ray, optical and infrared telescopes have spotted three galaxies – hosting three supermassive black holes – in the process of merging.

Merging galactic black holes focus of new survey

9 November 2018 Astronomy Now

Astronomers are getting their best views yet of supermassive black holes in the cores of colliding galaxies moving toward mergers, rapidly growing as they gorge on stellar debris

Hubble gives astronomers ringside seat for galaxy merger

2 June 2018 Astronomy Now

Two colliding galaxies 100 million light years away give astronomers a ringside seat to witness bursts of star formation as vast clouds of gas and dust interact, triggering the creation of thousands of star clusters surrounding two galactic cores that are slowly merging.

Dawn of a galactic collision

19 December 2017 Astronomy Now

A riot of colour and light dances through this peculiarly shaped galaxy, NGC 5256. Its smoke-like plumes are flung out in all directions and the bright core illuminates the chaotic regions of gas and dust swirling through the galaxy’s centre. Its odd structure is due to the fact that this is not one galaxy, but two — in the process of a galactic collision.

Lenticular galaxy conceals an eventful past

18 April 2016 Astronomy Now

The elegant simplicity of NGC 4111, seen here in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, hides a more violent history than you might think. NGC 4111 is a lenticular, or lens-shaped, galaxy, lying about 50 million light-years from us in the constellation of Canes Venatici (The Hunting Dogs).

Hubble sees two galaxies become one

28 December 2015 Astronomy Now

This image, taken with the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 on board the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows the galaxy NGC 6052, located around 230 million light-years away in the constellation of Hercules. It is a “new” galaxy in the process of forming, the result of a merger between two separate galaxies that were gradually drawn together by gravity.

Vagabond supernovae flung into space by binary black-hole slingshots?

16 August 2015 Astronomy Now

A new analysis of 13 supernovae — including archived data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope — is helping astronomers explain how some young stars exploded sooner than expected, hurling them to a lonely place far from their host galaxies. It’s a complicated mystery of double-star systems, merging galaxies, and twin black holes.