Resulting Structures of Galactic Collisions :: Essays Papers

Resulting Structures of Galactic Collisions In the visible universe, there is adept type of event that is a good deal responsible for a good bulk of the change phenomena we observe across the cosmos. A type of event whose micturate are both destructive and creative. This event is the fundamental interaction of two or more galaxies. The results of a astronomic interaction are so varied that each event is unique. Therefore, only a select few examples willing be described in the following pages. An examination of the term galactic interaction does not immediately convey much in the focussing of understanding as to exactly what happens during one of these events. The problem is that the word interaction is fairly ambiguous, yet it must be so because two galaxies tidy sum interact in so many ways that literally any interaction we observe is a unique event (depending on how cozy one looks at the details). Changing the mass ratios, the angle of impact, or the geomorphol ogical type of the progenitor galaxies can greatly influence the nature of the governing body after the interaction has played itself out, as we shall see. However, galactic interactions do often share many characteristics. The most notable feature associated with interacting galaxies is often the protagonistburst phenomenon. A starburst is an extremely high rate of star formation over actuate or all of a galaxy over a cosmologically laconic period of time (possibly a few billion years as opposed to several billion years). Galaxy interactions cause gravitational instabilities in interstellar gas clouds, which compress the gas in the clouds and trigger star formation (Mouri 2003). When astronomers look at an ongoing starburst in a outback(a) galaxy, they see the starburst as a bluer region than the surrounding parts of the soldiers galaxy. That is due to the extremely hot and energetic, yet short lived, O-type stars produced in the burst, which outshine all of the other sta rs being born around them as substantially as the older, redder stars that populate the galaxy. For an example of a galaxy undergoing an interaction- induced starburst, permit us look at M82, a member of a nearby group of galaxies. M82 is a rather disturbed-looking disk galaxy that is currently undergoing a massive amount of star formation in its nuclear region. The cause is theorized to be a close encounter between M82 and M81, its large neighbor, which occurred just about a billion years ago (Lipscy & Plavchan 2003).