What Happens When Galaxies Collide?

[paggi93]

awesome vid.but still many questions arrive.

[eukaree143]

i wonder if there is a star that is not in a galaxy....

[ArataMusic1]

There is.

Both the Milky Way and Andromeda have halos around them, which is stars that are not inside of the both galaxies, meaning that any life forms in them would see the andromeda or milky way in the sky.

[killertboy16]

i heared it was 70 billion years?

[RexNunc]

3 billion years?

Better start packing

[paggi93]

funny!!!

[entoris476]

i have a question

if theres a black hole in every galaxy..

when galaxys collide..wont the black holes collide?

any if they do what happens?

[SpitzerJim]

The black holes wouldn't necessarily collide, but if they did, they'd most likely merge into a larger black hole. A leading theory of gamma ray bursters says that they might be the result of colliding black holes.

[paggi93]

but still they say even light can't escape in the black hole then many stars release so many radiations like light so won't they suckup those stars?

[shelly2shoe]

good question

[sobolev499]

by the time these 2 galaxys hit the atoms from our dead bone dust would have been destroyed XD...

[SundaysCybele]

All it would take during a galaxy collision is for the sun's path to be knocked off course slightly and that will cause the orbits of the planets to destabilize which will mean the planets will either fly away from the sun or fall into it.

[dreguera5027]

there is more of a chance that life on earth will be extinct in three billion years than earth colliding with another star when the milky way merges with the andromeda galaxy. so fascinating

[HyperChief117]

its more like 5 bilion

[eljpayne]

So if our galaxy did colide will earth be wiped out because of the different gravity?

[SpitzerJim]

There's really no danger at all to Earth from a galaxy collision. There's just too much space between stars for any of the stars to be likely to come close enough to disturb our Solar System.

[Zedlav101]

That would be extremely funny if an astroid from Andromeda took out the Earth during the collision :P

[demonzsoul]

If humans still prevail then they will see this collision, it wont be dangerous but as gravity plays it's role then we may see them colliding and that will be beautiful...

watch my space video of celestia

[SoldierBingFilms]

When galaxies collide....UR MAMA IS CREATED!,,,,(Just kidding) but thats alont time....will we all die when galaxies collide?

[xXxTHEBEATMAKERxXx]

yeah thats crazy i just herd about this yesterday and i did some research. N.A.S.A has been sending out satelites to try and dectect these actually happening for a while now! It makes you think when is this goin to happen to our galaxy

[zenniz1992]

Dont worry.

[swords9023]

When galaxies collide...people die!

[tommybrett]

for me the main point is if the new galaxy will be called andromeda,the milky way or andromamilk!

[tommybrett]

i heard from the internet that we and andromeda are about the same size now

[SpitzerJim]

Yep. The Milky Way is actually a bit bigger. That discovery was announced at the American Astronomical Society meeting earlier this month. It's exciting how we're always learning new things in astronomy!

[shfbdfi1273]

Why should we care about anything beyond earth's orbit? Knowing about all these galaxy doesn't solve world hunger.

[Lackeira]

lol it makes me laugh the people who poor comment this guys point, but technically hes right, solve our own problems first, then we should explore the galaxies, i mean look how many billions it cost for the hadron collider experiement, that kind of money would fucking cure world poverty, none can deny scientists are greedy fuckers, i mean yeh it would be awesome to explore other places but it can wait, the galaxies aren't gonna go anywhere lol...

[SpitzerJim]

Just for the record, the Spitzer Space Telescope cost every American about $2.66 to build and launch.

[Anne146109]

Does our Galaxy move?

[xkrazyxboix101]

yes

[SpitzerJim]

Short answer: Yes. It moves as the Universe expands, and it interacts with neighboring galaxies.

[79481429]

w-what? wadda ya mean 'Interact with neighbouring galaxies"????

[SpitzerJim]

There are several galaxies in our local group, and they're all attracting each other due to gravity.

[clayzee001]

milky way + andromeda gonna collide in 3-5 billion years

[karmincernescu]

thank you,I've found lots of high quality pictures with what I wanted and more. =) thanks

[karmincernescu]

do you know where can i find high quality pictures of Eta Carinae nebula,Orion nebula(m42),the Rho Opiuchi and something like this?

[SpitzerJim]

I can't post the URL in a comment, but do a web search for the official Spitzer Space Telescope image gallery. All three are available for high-quality download there (along with many, many others).

[sarvanitis]

you are right man!

[GuruGulu]

Can the stars collide in any sort of chance.

[SpitzerJim]

Nothing's impossible, but it would be like dropping a grain of sand from an airplane and expecting it to hit a grain of sand shot out by a cannon. There's just too much empty space for there to be any real statistical likelihood of a collision.

[bigxp00py]

would the gravity of stars not pull them together, if the galaxies collided?

[SpitzerJim]

Not really, no. Our Sun is actually pretty close to Alpha Centauri (4 light-years), but at that distance, the effect of gravity is miniscule. The star's momentum and (in the case of a spiral galaxy) gravitational attraction to the galactic core would be much, much stronger.

[JcFtw0]

Actually, no one really knows how stars are created.

[GuruGulu]

Hah the milkadramana I wonder if we will interact with other life?

[SpitzerJim]

I hope so!  :)

[sMC193]

3 billion years. Wow. Is NASA or anyone making any improvement in one day setting out to go beyond our solar system?

[SpitzerJim]

That's why we're here. You can't cross oceans until you learn to cross streams. But if you're afraid of the water, you'll never go anywhere.

[449xFusion]

thats some very interesting stuff about space

[crubs83]

I wonder, can galactical collisions create elements beyond that of what we have created?

[SpitzerJim]

Right now the dominant model is that the only thing that can create elements heaver than iron is a supernova, but there's still a lot of research to be done in that area....

[mnmisoemogangsta]

i feel sad for all the ppl livingin the milky way galaxy when it collides with a diff galaxy.. well if humanity still exists to that day with stupid pplz pollution

[SpitzerJim]

That actually only one of a bunch of competing theories. The opposite is the "big rip" theory, in which the fabric of the Universe itself expands out of existence...

Lots of research still to do!

[GuruGulu]

I hope there's a theory where we survive!

[TreeHandThing]

How can they collide in 3 billion yrs, if the space between stars is so great, teh space between galaxies? How can they collide? Weird, but 5/5

[themiracle11]

great question, I"m wating an answer 2

[SpitzerJim]

You have to remember that from the distance we see other galaxies from, we can't see individual stars. So even though none of them are colliding, it still looks like a major collision from our point of view.

[PenguinCharmi]

wait do galaxies move i mean move from place to place not rotate or anything? plz answer

if they do move is the milky way moving right now

[SpitzerJim]

Yes, all galaxies are moving in the Universe. They're moving away from each other as the Universe expands, and they're being pulled toward each other in their local galaxy groups.

[SpitzerJim]

The galaxy has enough gravity that it's unlikely any would end up alone in deep space.

[meonlyme1]

Haha, beerasaurus's explanation is quite clear and...humoring! XD

[pcwhizmail]

That was temendously interesting. It's too bad humans don't live long enough to experience any of these events.

[teethgrind]

how can those galaxies move?

[vaaty25]

i think(I THINK!!!) they move has the same as the earth moves around the sun

[SpitzerJim]

Gravity. They're pulled together just like any other matter in the Universe.

[SpitzerJim]

Depends on what you mean by "lost." Yes, a lot of stars will end up pulled out of the galaxies, creating "rivers" of stars, called "tidal tails." But the stars will all continue their individual life cycles perfectly normally, whether they're in the main part of the galaxy or not.

[reviewmad]

i cant wait to be the in the "dead people of 2008" BIG milky way

[beerasaurus]

You see, when two galaxies love each other very much they want to let each other know it so they share their stars together and then their gases rub together and get hotter and hotter and HOTTER!(NO DON"T STOP!) until new stars are born! And thats where babies come from...for galaxies.

[AngrySmileDonkey]

HILARIOUS!

[pajamaninja367]

haha funny

[reviewmad]

lol

[crubs83]

no cimNet, as evidence shows, were the only physical organisms in the universe... we meaning us earthlings lol

[BernierCR42]

you are wrong. No evidence of other life is not the same thing as evidence of no life. the universe is really really big, and really old. Also, there could very well be more than one universe in the normal sense of the word. We have only searched a very tiny portion of the universe for a small amount of possible signals.

Your argument is like claiming no one lives in Europe. You are basing this on the fact that you went to one house in Europe, for a minute, and didn't hear anyone.

[tripletrules]

I love how when the gas clouds combine, you can tell one isn't really into it, and the other is like "yeah baby let's merge" lolol. Gas rape hahaha

[cimNet1]

hah, does that mean extra life in our galaxy

[SpitzerJim]

I sure do hope so...

[mizfamouz]

woow!

[MuggleSam]

3 Billion years?

[SpitzerJim]

Yep. Got a little while still...