Distortion of galaxies
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by suelaine
The merger or collision of the two galaxies is causing a lot of distortion of galaxy. Is that caused by the force of the collision, gravity?other factors?
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by Padme-1
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by suelaine
Please translate agn (above). Thanks
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by Mgorman in response to suelaine's comment.
suelaine
Please translate agn (above). ThanksActive galactic nucleus: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_galactic_nucleus. Watch for tag in talk keywords and click on it to see Zoo member potential AGN galaxies.
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by JeanTate in response to suelaine's comment.
suelaine
The merger or collision of the two galaxies is causing a lot of distortion of galaxy. Is that caused by the force of the collision, gravity?other factors?It's caused almost entirely by gravity. Galaxies are enormous systems of stars which interact with each other by gravity (collisions of individual stars is extremely rare). Galaxies with a lot of gas (actually much of it is plasma, which is ionized gas) - mostly spirals - may lose much of their gas in a collision, producing a strange and beautiful kind of galaxy, a ring galaxy (not to be confused with a ringed galaxy), or collisional ring galaxy. After (or during) a collision or merger, the gas (which also contains a small amount of dust) may be compressed and heated, setting off a spectacular round of star formation, resulting in blue - or even purple - clumps.
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