Image of the Day: You Name the Cosmos

In further proof that the universe can kick our butt at just about anything, the double galaxies of NGC4676 are putting on a pyrotechnics display that Jerry Bruckheimer couldn't imagine if he mainlined LSD and directly applied two thousand volts to his visual cortex.  They're colliding in a process leading astrophysicists describe as "totally awesome".  They've got a sense of cinema style to it too, drawing the stellar spectacular out in extreme slow-motion - a few hundred million years, now showing in a cosmos near you. We think astronomers could do a better name these fantastic objects. What would you name them?

In further proof that the universe can kick our butt at just about anything, the double galaxies of NGC4676 are putting on a pyrotechnics display that Jerry Bruckheimer couldn't imagine if he mainlined LSD and directly applied two thousand volts to his visual cortex.  They're colliding in a process leading astrophysicists describe as "totally awesome".  They've got a sense of cinema style to it too, drawing the stellar spectacular out in extreme slow-motion - a few hundred million years, now showing in a cosmos near you. We think astronomers could do a better name these fantastic objects. What would you name them?

The spectacular images are recorded by the Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys, and believe me when I say that name is more understated than calling a mobile phone loaded with Angelina Jolie, Zhang Zhiyi and Brad Pitt's numbers the "Sort of okay looking person communicator".  Some people ask why we bother surveying the skies, paying for satellites to observe things millions of miles away that would never affect us unless they exploded and even then only after a few billion years.  Those people have never seen pictures like this, and likely wouldn't understand them if they did.

NGC4676 might sounds like a sci-fi starship license plate but even the most red-shirted trekkie would admit that the colliding galaxies are cooler than even the shiniest Enterprise model kit.  The colliding cosmic bodies have already ripped through each other, spreading stars and solar systems in the most immense wreckage imaginable, but the action isn't over yet.  When you're a galaxy you can't pull off a hit-and-run, and the two bodies are now caught in each other's gravity and will be drawn back together, continuing to smash together and fly apart until they eventually kiss and make up - forming a new galaxy out of everything that's left.

Observations of the unique system have yielded information about stellar collisions and the rotational motion of galaxies, but it's good to know that astronomers remember to occasionally stand back and say "Wow, you know this stuff is really cool."

Posted by Luke McKinney.

Astronomy picture of the day - Colliding galaxies  http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080224.html

The spectacular images are recorded by the Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys, and believe me when I say that name is more understated than calling a mobile phone loaded with Angelina Jolie, Zhang Zhiyi and Brad Pitt's numbers the "Sort of okay looking person communicator".  Some people ask why we bother surveying the skies, paying for satellites to observe things millions of miles away that would never affect us unless they exploded and even then only after a few billion years.  Those people have never seen pictures like this, and likely wouldn't understand them if they did.

NGC4676 might sounds like a sci-fi starship license plate but even the most red-shirted trekkie would admit that the colliding galaxies are cooler than even the shiniest Enterprise model kit.  The colliding cosmic bodies have already ripped through each other, spreading stars and solar systems in the most immense wreckage imaginable, but the action isn't over yet.  When you're a galaxy you can't pull off a hit-and-run, and the two bodies are now caught in each other's gravity and will be drawn back together, continuing to smash together and fly apart until they eventually kiss and make up - forming a new galaxy out of everything that's left.

Observations of the unique system have yielded information about stellar collisions and the rotational motion of galaxies, but it's good to know that astronomers remember to occasionally stand back and say "Wow, you know this stuff is really cool."

Posted by Luke McKinney.

Astronomy picture of the day - Colliding galaxies  http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080224.html

Comments

[Cosmogeist]

Makes me wonder how many civilizations are having their very own "2012" moments while this galactic collision is taking place and we sit with a bag of popcorn saying "cool".

Ahh, the universe is a wonderful place.

[Randall Klopping]

@Cosmogeist - "2012" moments? All that is likely going to happen in 2012 is our sun throwing her regular tantrum, may cause some damage to our technology but won't be the end of the world!

[Milkman]

Nice way to post a 300 pixel "image of the day"
next time, a larger one please!

[ThankGodForAtheism]

I was going to say the same thing Milkman... DG seems to be fond of low-res pictures for some reason.

[Eyes mind]

I think we should call this cosmos......"Stan".

[ThankGodForAtheism]

I think we should call it... Home

[Cosmogeist]

Oh relax, I seriously doubt ANYTHING will happen in 2012. There was just recent news that some Sunspots may actually disappear altogether forever

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2008/06/02/livingston-and-penn-paper-sunspots-may-vanish-by-2015/,

though in all honesty we haven't observed the Sun nearly long enough to truly predict it's patterns.

Nevertheless, saying "2012 moments" is an easy way of describing a cataclysmic event in as much as saying they're having their own Apocalypses or Doomsday's. It's so rediculous how many people overreact to saying 2012 just as much as the people who believe in it.

[fred palme]

if you look exactly - you discover the > galactic surfer < !

[EvilCosmicMonkeyfrom Knoxville]

How did the " 2012 " nonsense worm its way into a discussion about 2 galaxies in collision ?

This could be called the " Izanagi & Izanami " cosmos, or the " flowing streams " ( a piece of Chinese classical music ) cosmos.

[LegaLily]

In keeping with the spirit of the imaginative process, this was the first celestial image to have jumped out at me and declared itself, in quite so bold a flourish.

"The Swordfish Spectrum System" leaps to mind because of the sheer force and energy of the cataclysmic forces created by the passing of the two galaxies, one through the other. The mind cannot grasp the immensity or beauty of it.

However, these have already been named, "The Mice", A seemingly paltry designation, indeed. But, those who designate such things, must see so many spiral galaxies, that two more are little more than surplusage.

Ah, it is good, even now, to experience wonder....

[Jane Reed]

Call the display Gandalf the White.

[Marty Ferguson]

The egg and the sperm (don't go any further than that!!). :-)

M

[Marty Ferguson]

Thanks, Legalily! I was sure these were 'The Mice'.

M