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As if reaching out with a come-hither motion, a giant gas finger emanating from two neighboring galaxies has hooked into the starry disk of the Milky Way.
This extremity of hydrogen gas is actually the pointy end of the so-called Leading Arm of gas that streams ahead of two irregular galaxies called the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. The fate of these nearby galaxies, which are impacted by the Milky Way's gravity, has been somewhat of a mystery. The new finger findings suggest that the Magellanic Clouds will eventually merge with the Milky Way rather than zooming past.
Located about 160,000 light-years from Earth, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) is only one-twentieth the diameter of our galaxy and contains one-tenth as many stars. The Small Magellanic Cloud resides 200,000 light-years from Earth and is about 100 times smaller than the Milky Way.
"We're thrilled because we can determine exactly where this gas is plowing into the Milky Way," said research team leader Naomi McClure-Griffiths of CSIRO's Australia Telescope National Facility. Called HVC306-2+230, the gas finger is gouging into our galaxy's starry disk about 70,000 light-years away from Earth. In the night sky, the contact point would be nearest the Southern Cross.
Originally posted by tomcat ha
galaxies constantly eat each other, soon enough we will collide with andromeda.
Originally posted by Sinter Klaas
The space between the stars is so fast that the two galaxies arn't even colliding anything untill the reach the galaxies center. Where there are way many more stars then in our neighborhood.
Relax.
You will not get hurt.
Does this look worrying to anyone else, or am I being dramatic?
Originally posted by Sinter Klaas
I definitely share your curiosity and if it was up to me we would experience the event personaly.
I don't think the effect will be anything we would expect.
Originally posted by Silicis n Volvo
wouldnt worry too much, we are billions of years away from colliding with any other galaxies
Originally posted by Korg Trinity
Originally posted by Silicis n Volvo
wouldnt worry too much, we are billions of years away from colliding with any other galaxies
This event is happening now. not billions of years in the future.
2nd line.
korg.
Originally posted by Silicis n Volvo
no it isnt
2nd line
Astronomers from CSIRO have recently discovered, with the help of radio telescopes at Parkes and Narrabri, that gas coming from the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds is penetrating through the material disk of the Milky Way right over to the other side. Such gas flow observations may eventually provide data that would reveal the ultimate fate of the little galaxies, in the near vicinity of our Milky Way.
The leak of matter was dubbed HVC306-2+230 and is spanning all the way from the Magellanic cloud to the material disk of our galaxy, piercing it in a location about 70 thousands light-years away, near the Souther Cross.
According to CSIRO astronomer Dr. Naomi McClure-Griffiths, from the Australia Telescope National Facility, such a discovery represents an important find for the astronomical community, especially while taking into consideration the fact that gas features are very hard to spot from great distances.
Originally posted by Korg Trinity
Originally posted by Sinter Klaas
I definitely share your curiosity and if it was up to me we would experience the event personaly.
I don't think the effect will be anything we would expect.
It's this unknown element that does indeed worry me. I didn't mean worried about stars colliding but an event dealing with a subject we don't fully understand (Dark Mater)
We don't yet understand what dark matter is though of course we suspect it permeates through normal matter and beyond.
I suspect dark matter may vindicate Quantum loop gravity, dark matter being densely twisted space-time. The surface area of space time being far greater than in normal (if you can call it normal) Space-time.
So if we could detect or extrapolate the size and density of the dark matter within the magellan clouds, we may be able to create a simulation of how this effects us.
All the best,
Korg.
Originally posted by Xeven
I would not worry about Dark Matter. I am fairly certain dark matter and energy are just normal gravities propogation through time. We cannot measure it yet becaus we are only thinking in the moment.
Originally posted by pmbhuntress
Truthfully, I am not worried at all. I figure by the time it even gets close enough to maybe collide, I will have been dead for hundreds or even thousands of years. Why freaken worry about something that will happen after we are all dead, and even our kids and grand kids are dead? Think you may still feel it after your dead or what?