Cosmic exclamation point (big space pic)

[n2doc]

Cosmic Exclamation Point
VV 340, also known as Arp 302, provides a textbook example of colliding galaxies seen in the early stages of their interaction. The edge-on galaxy near the top of the image is VV 340 North and the face-on galaxy at the bottom of the image is VV 340 South. Millions of years later these two spirals will merge -- much like the Milky Way and Andromeda will likely do billions of years from now. Data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory (purple) are shown here along with optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope (red, green, blue). VV 340 is located about 450 million light years from Earth.

Image Credit: X-ray NASA/CXC/IfA/D.Sanders et al; Optical NASA/STScI/NRAO/A.Evans et al

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_2035.html

[gateley]

1. Wow! Don't you wish you could just zip around the universe

and watch stuff like this?

[Remember Me]

2. At what speed do galaxies collide?

Seems to me I remember it was painfully slow... but sure could be chaotic locally, even if that were the case.

Anyone know? (Of course, I could no doubt google it.)

[Speck Tater]

3. Check back in a hundred million years and the difference will be slightly noticeable.

Our galaxy makes one revolution about every 250 million years, so the collision will happen in sloooooooooooow motion.

[Remember Me]

7. Ah, slower than I could've imagined.

[Trajan]

4. This is what it's like when worlds collide ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsV500W4BHU&ob=av2e

It's the end of all time ....

[Remember Me]

6. OMG. Far worse and more chaotic than I could've imagined.

:rofl:

[Angleae]

5. The Milky Way and Andromeda are closing at about 250,000 mph

[Remember Me]

8. But at faster SPEEDS than I could've imagined.

Slow motion, 250,000 mph -- you guys are confusing me. :silly:

No, seriously, it's fascinating. Thanks for all the responses.