I am always astounded by pictures like this... A star forming, two galaxies colliding, a picture of a nebula hundreds of light-years across.

Makes me forget about Phorm, work place stress, third world debt, all of that stuff.

5 minutes on Google Space is better than any therapy session.

Good stuff. Lets just hope more space-based telescopes make it worthwhile.

OK, it's boring Thursday.....and if I could borrow someone elses' braincells for 0.005 seconds, I might be able to answer this myself....but.....

If we believe in the Big Bang theory and that there was a single point of origin that "exploded" x billion years ago......forming the Universe.........so why now (or rather some few million years ago, given that the light from the picture in question took an awfully long time to get to us).......are these two huge galaxies colliding?

If all the particles from the Big Bang were all sent out in different directions heading AWAY from a central point, how come these at least one of these two galaxies (or any others for that matter) is moving in a different direction and is approaching this other galaxy ???

Surely the universe is expanding.....and whatever time it took to form these dust clouds, that doesn't allow them the time to stop going AWAY from the origin of the Big Bang and to then change direction and to now be about to hit this other one?

I can't figure this out...and I doubt there are any other forces (dark matter?) strong enough to make a galaxy turn around without pulling it apart ?

There, I said it!

Sorry, sorry....

Yes, mines the one with the glitter stars on the back and sleeves.....

I always knew it.

These pictures show that although the Universe is 'expanding', it will inevitability end in a 'big crunch' of a super massive Black Hole! The dent's in Space Time that a galaxy makes, will draw other galaxy's toward each other, sucking in all matter into their internal Black Holes.

Queue up the future Reg story about surviving pieces of the Hubble being sold on eBay. Said eBay listing will include gems like "I've been using the telescope to watch my neighbor's wife in her bath, and I must say that the resolution is really quite good."

Even after all my many jaded years, space still fills me with awe and wonder.

... Ten points to Me!

After the big bang, the matter created wasn't sent hurtling in different directions through space. Instead, the space began to expand and continues to expand to this day. Matter, however, travels through space in all sorts of directions, buffeted hither and thither by various forces and two particles might well collide. That's how stars and planets formed. Ultimately, it's how we all formed.

You may be interested to know that the andromeda galaxy is hurtling through space on a path that will lead it to collide with our own galaxy many billions of years hence. Something to look forward to.

The two galaxies colliding are due to 'random motion'. Similar to the vortexes you get if you drop an object into liquid, it's the same idea. So one sort of swings round, and collides with the other one.

It's going to happen with the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galexy in something like 100million years or so.

hth :)

Why do galaxies collide? Simple: gravity. Yes, the universe is expanding so that on a large scale everything is getting further away from everything else. However, the matter in the universe is not evenly spaced and some clumps of it are closer together than other clumps. If two clumps (in this case galaxies) are close enough then their mutual gravitational attraction will pull them together and they will end up merging. This process can be seen in our own galaxy as it is currently in the process of gobbling up at least one satellite dwarf galaxy that got too close, and in approximately 3 billion years time an event much like the Hubble pictures will happen when the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxy collide.

This happens on an even larger scale than 'just' galaxies. Our galaxy is one of a group of about 30 that and on top of all the interactions between these galaxies, the group as a whole is being drawn towards something else. What that something is is a mystery at the moment and it is know simply as The Great Attractor.

Eddies......

As for this image I look forward to seeing it on WWT

Good question, AC. A layman's attempt at an explanation (any visiting astrophysicists - please correct me):

Matter on a scale of millions of light-years is very 'lumpy'. Most galaxies exist in clusters, which may contain thousands of galaxies gravitationally bound to each other. "Gravitationally bound" implies that the attraction between them is sufficiently strong (or they're falling together sufficiently quickly) to more than compensate for the expansion of the space between them.

Within these clusters, collisions are possible and relatively frequent - given that a collision takes place over many millions of years we can see quite a lot of them in differing stages. Our own local cluster includes the satellite galaxies of the Milky Way (principally the Magellanic Clouds) and the Andromeda galaxy. We will collide with the latter in a few billion years time (booking early is essential if you would like a good seat :).

The reason that galaxies could collide is because the gravitational mass and therefore forces of the two galaxies exceeds the force of the universe expanding and hence bringing them together, whilst also moving with the expanind universe. That's my understanding of it anyway, I might be wrong. The Big Bang theory relies heavily on gravity being the key to everything however there are alternative theories that could be conisered better.

There are a few flaws in the Big Bang's theory concerning the age and shape of the universe. It uses dark matter to attempt to plug its holes, and this is yet another theory based on a theory. Some of the alernatives opt for an infinite universe, no start or end, other theroies consider that perhaps the universe is governed by electricity, gravity and magnetism. At the end of the day, it's one big head f*** and we as humans haven't even scratched the surface.

Dancing round each other like rain kissed lovers

gravity singing whale whilst capturing others

the Multiverse is eternal and full of stars,

held within another's celestial grasp.

The big bang theory and dark matter story

of expanding gases, sub atomic blast in history

our 'verse is ever steeped in mystery

and the deep abiding sense of long ago history...

I'm such a good IT engineer tho' :-)

The expansion of the universe is tough to grasp. The best explanation I have had is by analogy. Try to imagine a two dimensional man who lives in a two dimensional world on the surface of a balloon which is slowly being inflated.

As far as he's concerned, his entire (2 dimensional universe) is expanding. As he's only two dimensional, he has no concept of up or down, so there's no central point from which his universe expands; it just keeps getting bigger, seemingly from nowhere.

All the time this expansion is going on, he lives his life normally. In fact, his two dimensional glaxy attracts nearby two dimensional galaxies exactly as if the universe were not expanding (OK, it's a BIG balloon). They are still attracted to each other, even thought the balloon is getting bigger.

We're just the same, except that we're clearly three-or four dimensional aware, and the expansion is occurring at right angles to OUR reality.

Paris, because she's the one who explained this to me.

O

ET, don't you think!

Top stuff.

Re-allocates humanity's significance level downwards once again.

.....women shouldn't drive Galaxies.

... how do I know that it's the universe that's expanding, not me shrinking ?

Has anyone told Lembit "Cheeky Boy" Opik about this?

Even though the Hubble telescope was originally flawed (the main mirror was incorrect), the fixes and improvements made by the Shuttle since have led to it becoming the best instrument for this kind of astronomical picture. The results alone justify the expense of maintaining a fleet of Shuttles. How can we (I suppose as NASA) even conceive of letting it fall into disuse?

My cynical side wonders if this is a part of Shrubs attempt to replace science in American culture and policy with (mis-guided) religion. Let us hope the next president, whoever that turns out to be, can and will reverse this Luddite policy!

Meanwhile, thank you for steering me to these FANTASTIC pictures.