Distortion of galaxies

• 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?

  Posted April 27, 2013 2:31 AM

• by Padme-1

  #agn

  Posted April 27, 2013 5:13 AM

• by suelaine

  Please translate agn (above). Thanks

  Posted April 30, 2013 3:35 AM

• by Mgorman in response to suelaine's comment.

  suelaine
  Please translate agn (above). Thanks

  Active 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.

  Posted April 30, 2013 4:00 AM

• 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.

  Posted April 30, 2013 6:39 AM