Four-Galaxy Collision

1. ted
   July 9th, 2009 at 8:44 pm

   I think I see Michael Jackson's ghost. Can you see him smiling to the right of the blue stars?

2. Johnny Cat
   July 9th, 2009 at 9:15 pm

   Actually, ted, the grouping to the left of the blue stars looks like MJ, if the artists from Coraline had designed it. Otherwise, a very inspiring photograph.

3. Johnny Cat
   July 9th, 2009 at 11:31 pm

   The Chandra gets such good images, with a little help from the Hawaiian scope, one wonders why we need Hubble anymore.

4. Him
   July 10th, 2009 at 12:11 am

   And that folks, is why I want to help expand our horizons to the outer reaches of space.

5. buma
   July 10th, 2009 at 12:56 pm

   A dumb question, but how do the experts know the four galaxies are not merely aligned with each other when veiwed from our vantage point?

6. Paula
   July 10th, 2009 at 1:14 pm

   buma, there are several ways to check that, one of the best ones is redshift - it's, roughly, a measure of distance along line of sight. If they have similar redshifts, then they are interacting.
   You can look for signs of interaction - see that bright blue bumpy strip in the middle? that's star formation triggered by the interaction!

   I do merger of galaxies for a living. any questions, please dont hesitate!

7. ted
   July 10th, 2009 at 6:13 pm

   You do merger of galaxies for a living? Do you charge by the galaxy, or the number of stars in the galaxy?

8. zav
   July 10th, 2009 at 11:12 pm

   Think of the insurance claims on that one.

9. VonSkippy
   July 11th, 2009 at 12:56 am

   See what happens when they don't use their turn signals!

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