Smashing Galaxies.Check out the wildest fireworks in the universe. In October, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope Hubble Space Telescope (HST), the first large optical orbiting observatory. Built from 1978 to 1990 at a cost of $1.5 billion, the HST (named for astronomer E. P. Hubble) was expected to provide the clearest view yet obtained of the universe. captured this photo of two nearby colliding galaxies (orbiting systems of billions of stars). The collision ignited millions of newborn stars sizzling like firecrackers. Hubble's photos should offer astronomers new clues about how stars form, evolve, and finally fizzle fiz·zle intr.v. fiz·zled, fiz·zling, fiz·zles 1. To make a hissing or sputtering sound. 2. Informal To fail or end weakly, especially after a hopeful beginning. n. . (For more Star news, see "Megastar!" SW 12/8/97.) To get the picture, Hubble zoomed in on two galaxies called the Antennae, 63 million light-years away. (A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, about 9.5 trillion kilometers or 6 trillion miles.) As galaxies smash into one another, their combined gravitational grav·i·ta·tion n. 1. Physics a. The natural phenomenon of attraction between physical objects with mass or energy. b. The act or process of moving under the influence of this attraction. 2. forces (strong pulls) compress clouds of hydrogen gas. Enormous heat and pressure cause the gas clouds to collapse into dense, glowing spheres -- newborn stars. Astronomers count more than 1,000 star clusters spewing from the crash site -- each cluster containing up to 1 million stars. "The sheer number of young star clusters is amazing," says Bradley Whitmore, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) is the science operations center for the Hubble Space Telescope (HST; in orbit since 1990) and for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST; scheduled to be launched in 2013). in Baltimore, Maryland. Hubble's photos also offer a surreal glimpse into our own future 5 billion years from now. Our Milky Way galaxy Milky Way Galaxy Large spiral galaxy (roughly 150,000 light-years in diameter) that contains Earth's solar system. It includes the multitude of stars whose light is seen as the Milky Way, the irregular luminous band that encircles the sky defining the plane of the galactic may be on a crash course with the Andromeda galaxy, 2.2 million light-years away. The two galaxies are speeding toward each other at 480,000 kph (300,000 mph). If Andromeda strikes the Milky Way head-on, the two galaxies could explosively merge into one, an event that could take several billion years to occur. Of course Andromeda could merely sideswipe side·swipe tr.v. side·swiped, side·swip·ing, side·swipes To strike along the side in passing. n. 1. A glancing blow on or along the side. 2. An incidental critical remark; a gibe. our galaxy -- or miss it all together. We hope to keep you posted -- or is it toasted? |
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