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Puck
The Texan
Joined: 05 Jan 2004
Posts: 5596
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 Sat Sep 25, 2004 1:04 am Galaxies collide with bang;output is second only to Big Bang |
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Galaxies collide with stellar bang
By Tariq Malik
SPACE.com
SPACE.com -- Astronomers have found what they are calling the perfect cosmic storm, a galaxy cluster pile-up so powerful its energy output is second only to the Big Bang.
The cluster collision is the most powerful ever recorded and a fresh glimpse of the cluster merging process, where great swarms of galaxies smash into one another to form a single galactic structure.
"We are now able to see things in nature of what was previously only available in computer simulation," said astronomer Patrick Henry, of the University of Hawaii, during a September 23 teleconference with reporters.
Henry led an international team of astronomers that used a space-based X-ray observatory to peer at an object known as Abell 754, the product of the collision between two smaller galaxy clusters about 300 million years ago. Finding observable evidence of such collisions bolsters theories that the universe formed in a "bottom up" hierarchical structure where stars and galaxies collected and merged together to form larger galaxies and galaxy clusters.
Galaxy clusters are the largest structures in the universe to be bound by gravity, some containing the mass of up to 10,000 times that of our own Milky Way, researchers said. The Milky Way, is part of a galactic club dubbed the Local Group, which could slam into the Virgo Cluster in a few billion years, though the expansion of the universe may prevent it, they added.
A tale of two clusters
Based on their observations, Henry and his colleagues were able to backtrack the Abell 754 collision to its two constituent galaxy clusters, with one smaller than the other.
The smaller cluster most likely contained about 300 galaxies, while its larger neighbor about 1,000 galaxies, researchers said. But when the two clusters collided with one another, they formed a still unsettled super cluster about 1 million light-years across that should take another billion years to settle down completely, researchers said. One light-year is the distance a beam of light travels in a year, about 6 trillion miles (10 trillion kilometers).
"This cluster is closer us than some of the others," said August Evrard, a University of Michigan astronomy and physics professor, of Abell 754. "Which makes it brighter and easier to study."
In the new study, researchers used the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton X-ray observatory to study the cluster. In addition to plotting the collision, researchers took detailed pressure, temperature and density readings to generate a "weather map" of the two galaxy clusters and make a forecast for the settling period.
"The weather in this cluster is a cosmic version of [Hurricane] Ivan," said Evrard said. "These big storms are themselves rare events."
Abell 754 sits about 800 million light-years away in the constellation Hydra in the southern sky. The research will appear in an upcoming issue of the Astrophysical Journal.
The right track
Researchers said the Abell 754 observations match closely with those predicted by computer models and are a sign that astronomers are on the right track with theories of galactic evolution and the structure of the universe.
NASA researcher Richard Mushotzky, U.S. project scientist for the XMM-Newton observatory, told reporters that the research also adds to the understanding of dark matter and dark energy, two invisible phenomena that can determine the rate of merging galactic clusters.
"In some ways, galaxy clusters are the universe in a box," Mushotzky said. "If we can understand them with some detail, we can apply those findings to the universe as a whole.
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Republican_Man
STV's Premier Conservative
Joined: 26 Mar 2004
Posts: 14823
Location: Classified
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| Sat Sep 25, 2004 11:23 am |
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Amazing! Awesome! Now, this also brings up debate about the Big Bang.
If you're not religious and believe in this theory (I am religious but believe in it) how could the Big Bang have happened? Wouldn't SOMETHING or SOMEONE have had to start it? Nothing couldn't have started it. So there's some proof about God.
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Hitchhiker
Rear Admiral
Joined: 11 Aug 2004
Posts: 3514
Location: Ontario, Canada
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| Sat Sep 25, 2004 12:02 pm |
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The current scientific theory postulates that our universe exists on one spatial brane that is outside the universe, this brane collided with another universe's brane, annhilating both universes and creating a new one, ours. When our universe gets old via expansion, it collides extradimensionally and starts the cycle over again.
Of course, I'm open to the concept that a God is behind all this, I just don't think so for sure.
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Thomas
Pool Princess
Joined: 08 Jul 2001
Posts: 19730
Location: Manchester
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| Sat Sep 25, 2004 12:04 pm |
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| Republican_Man wrote: | | Wouldn't SOMETHING or SOMEONE have had to start it? |
You can make that same argument about God... "How could the Big Bang have happened otherwise?" does not prove that God exists. But yeah, it's good news that scientists' theories about space are being proven to be correct.
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Puck
The Texan
Joined: 05 Jan 2004
Posts: 5596
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| Sat Sep 25, 2004 1:10 pm |
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Here is a pic of it.
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Jeff Miller
Fleet Admiral
Joined: 22 Nov 2001
Posts: 23947
Location: Mental Ward for the Mentaly Unstable 6th floor, Saint John's 1615 Delaware Longview Washington 98632
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| Sat Sep 25, 2004 1:26 pm |
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Cool, maybe in a million years they'll be a race as smart as humans 
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Link, the Hero of Time
Vice Admiral
Joined: 15 Sep 2001
Posts: 5581
Location: Kokori Forest, Hyrule
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gilbert3729
Commander
Joined: 01 Aug 2004
Posts: 390
Location: New England, USA
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| Mon Sep 27, 2004 2:00 pm |
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| Republican_Man wrote: | Amazing! Awesome! Now, this also brings up debate about the Big Bang.
If you're not religious and believe in this theory (I am religious but believe in it) how could the Big Bang have happened? Wouldn't SOMETHING or SOMEONE have had to start it? Nothing couldn't have started it. So there's some proof about God. |
Wait, i must have missed something in the reading. Where did it mention the existance of God, or even imply it?
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Kyre
Commodore
Joined: 15 Mar 2002
Posts: 1263
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| Mon Sep 27, 2004 2:34 pm |
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| chocho_11 wrote: | | Republican_Man wrote: | | Wouldn't SOMETHING or SOMEONE have had to start it? |
You can make that same argument about God... |
What people can't contemplate is that if God, or a God, did exist, nothing would have to start it/him/her. That's what omnipotence is all about.
Not that I believe in God, but that's a point about religion I always notice first in these debates.
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Hitchhiker
Rear Admiral
Joined: 11 Aug 2004
Posts: 3514
Location: Ontario, Canada
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| Mon Sep 27, 2004 3:29 pm |
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Indeed. Here's a question: What does God believe in? Is God an Atheist?
You could always accept the solution to be a matter of infinite regression, a God created a God who created a God who created a God who created God who created the Earth, ad infinitum.
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Kyre
Commodore
Joined: 15 Mar 2002
Posts: 1263
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| Tue Sep 28, 2004 4:33 pm |
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Again, such a question doesn't have an answer. A God wouldn't really have a religion. It's hard to explain, because it's difficult enough trying to think myself. These are situations we simply can't understand.
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