Did you know that galaxies eat each other? Galaxies are cannibals!

krnel (78)in #galaxy • 8 years ago (edited)

Staring through a telescope looking at the night sky, distant islands appear in the abyss of the universe. These are the galaxies.

Understanding galaxies is in the works, and more is being learned about these aggregate grouping orders, that we also belong to as part of the Milky Way. We don't really know how they are created or begin, but we know some aspects of their evolution, and also have understood how they are sometimes "destroyed" and "die".

Big Boys Don't Cry

The galaxies NGC 1132 and ESO 306–017 are some of the bigger galaxies we have found. They got this way by eating their neighbors.

We can even see the current melding of galaxies through telescopes, as the main image on this post shows. It's a billion year struggle that takes time to complete.

Merging isn't the only way for a galaxy to be destroyed. Stronger gravitational galaxies can affect smaller ones and rip them apart.

This is another example, of a galactic battle where two galaxies rip into each other. Stars are being violently ripped from one galaxy and stream into the other:

The aftermath of galactic battles, leaves streams of gases, stars, and dust littering the "grounds" where galaxies once stood. Gravity is what brings these contenders to the ring to destroy each other with one winner emerging. Gravity even works to bring galaxies together in harmony and unity as a huge galaxy cluster. But when they get trapped in a confined "space", they can turn on each other.

As big boys get bigger, they gain weight, and increase their gravitational affect on others, making it easier to grab their next victim. For galaxies, survival of the fittest is based on who is the biggest.

Dwarf Galaxies

When a smaller galaxy has the unfortunate opportunity to have a larger one pass by, they can end up flayed by repeated encounters. In the end, all that remains are exposed innards, as former aspects of their greatness. Since there are many galaxies in a galaxy cluster, this tends to happen often there.

Milky Bully

Our galaxy is the local bully. The Sagittarius Dwarf shows evidence that it has been constantly been eaten away by the Milky Way as it continues to pass around us our galaxy. Stellar streams form where stars line the path where a stronger galaxy passed by to influence the gravitational ordering within the smaller galaxy.

Galactic Forensics

Each galactic encounter leave a trace. Globular clusters, which are stars tht compact together and orbit galaxies as a satellite, are often a part of all larger galaxies. They are composed of different orbits, chemical compositions and spatial distributions that differ from the overall surrounding galaxies formation. Careful analysis can indicate the original size, type and number of galaxies that were previously "consumed".

Galaxies don't consume everything, leaving trails behind. This symbolizes being a messy eater. As a result stars, planets, moons, dust, can exist not within galaxies themselves, but between galaxies, moving freely between them. Rogue stars like this, might be the most abundant luminous objects in our night sky. These can form into globular clusters as mentioned above.

The Fate of Our Galaxy

We ourselves, as a planet, are hurling through space, at 250 000 mph. Imagine the impact and fight that takes place when two collide..

The future of the Milky Way looks dangerous. Watch out... In 4 billion years... we are going to face a conflict from the larger Andromeda. The Milky Way will be locked into a battle, with one winner emerging. Our "Local Group" of galaxies will one day merge, after hundreds of billions of years, into one "Milkomeda" galactic behemoth.

When one galaxy "consumes" another, the grouping order that formerly was ceases to be, but a new grouping order amalgamation is created from the conjunction of two or more galaxies. That is the evolution of galaxies. From the chaos, a new order. One collection grouping order or another, it's all different coordination, organization and arrangement of parts.

We may not know the origin of much in the universe, but we can see how things evolve and change. The universe has a story to tell, if we can see the tale woven through the stars, moons, planets and dust.

[Image sources: 1, 2, 3]

[Source: 1]