Scientists in Hawaii and Chile are studying the collision of two galaxies that could reveal what might happen to Earth’s Milky Way galaxy in the future.
Scientists have predicted that a titanic head-on collision will occur between the Milky Way and neighboring Andromeda galaxy about 4 billion years from now.
The merger under study is occurring with a galaxy called NGC660, about 40 million light-years away toward the constellation Pisces.
Scientists at the Gemini Observatory in Hilo said NGC660 is one of a few "polar ring galaxies" that display a ring of stars, dust and gas that extends tens of thousands of light years across space perpendicular to the main disk.
The image captured of NGC660 is of the "beautiful" but "bloody" aftermath of one galaxy piercing the heart of another.
"Gemini’s incredible definition of the active star … is simply beautiful," said University of Arizona scientist Brian Svoboda. "It really is the most incredible picture I’ve seen of the galaxy."
Scientists said they expected, with the merging of two galaxies, a collapsed core and a burst of star formation.
But they also found high gas content in the polar ring and a furious burst of star formation at the galaxy’s core.
"The gravitational interaction between the two galaxies created shock waves that plowed into giant clouds of gas, causing them to collapse into behemoth blues stars, many likely containing more than 100 times the mass of our sun," according to the Gemini Observatory.
The stars exploded and eventually created youthful stars at NGC660’s core.
Scientists said NGC660 was not only a polar-ring galaxy but also a starburst galaxy, whose system is an intense star-forming system.
The Gemini Observatory has twin telescopes on Mauna Kea in Hawaii and Cerro Pachon in Chile.
The telescopes, built at a cost of more than $184 million, are operated by a consortium of countries, including the United States.
