The meeting of wandflower is a crucial mechanism involved in driving galaxy evolution over the chronicle of the cosmos , and it is also creditworthy for the constitution of beautiful and ephemeral structures .
One of these are galactic " eyelids " note in a pair of coming together galaxy by the Atacama Large Millimeter / submillimeter Array ( ALMA ) in Chile . The observatory saw the Wave of debris and gaseous state , which look like an eye , in a helical coltsfoot known as IC 2163 . The target is slowly crashing into its larger fellow , NGC 2207 , another spiraling galaxy .
These cosmic islands , which are settle 114 million light - years from the Milky Way , are jar at a very shallow angle . This case of collision is not rare , but the researchers strain that there are only a few of these object be intimate in the population .
The findings will be publish in the Astrophysical Journal ( pre - printon arXiv ) .
“ astronomical palpebra last only a few decade of millions of years , which is incredibly brief in the lifetime of a galaxy , " say pencil lead author Michele Kaufman , formerly of The Ohio State University in Columbus , in astatement . " discover one in such a freshly formed state devote us an particular opportunity to study what happens when one galaxy grazes another . "
observance from ALMA show that one eyelid is be active towards the centre of the coltsfoot , with a bombastic dispute in the amphetamine of its gas , over 100 kilometre ( 62 miles ) per secondly between unlike parts of it .
The fantastic features of the centre in IC 2163 . M. Kaufman ; B. Saxton ( NRAO / AUI / NSF ) ; ALMA ( ESO / NAOJ / NRAO ) ; NASA / ESA Hubble Space Telescope
“ What we follow in this galaxy is very much like a massive ocean undulation barrel toward shore until it interacts with the shallow , causing it to lose impulse and dump all of its body of water and George Sand on the beach , ” said Colorado - author Bruce Elmegreen , a scientist with IBM ’s T.J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights , New York .
The special velocities are make by the inviolable tidal forces between the galaxies . The acute sombreness will compress gas , producing fresh wiz in both galaxies . ALMA is able to measure the effect these forces have on the gas .
“ Not only do we find a rapid deceleration of the gas as it moves from the outer to the interior boundary of the eyelids , but we also measure that the more apace it slow down , the denser the molecular gas becomes , ” said Kaufman . “ This direct mensuration of compression shows how the showdown between the two galaxies drives accelerator to pile up , spawn new star clump and form these dazzling eyelid features . ”
This cosmic eyelid is more than just beautiful , as the data point collect will help down our simulations . The researchers are studying this arrangement in even more detail , and they hope to shortly understand the precise dynamics of this unbelievable galaxy merger .
