Galaxy Mergers Archives - Universe Today

What is Galactic Evolution?

6 Oct , 2016 by Matt Williams

Galaxies have a natural life cycle, which began shortly after the Big Bang and will likely continue for several trillion years.

Lazy Giant Galaxies Gain Mass By Ingesting Smaller Neighbors

19 Sep , 2014 by Tammy Plotner

The Anglo-Australian Telescope in New South Wales has been watching how lazy giant galaxies gain size – and it isn’t because they create their own stars. In a research project known as the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey, a group of Australian scientists led by Professor Simon Driver at the International Centre for Radio […]

New Research Sheds Light On Black Hole Growth

13 Feb , 2013 by Tammy Plotner

In a new study led by University of Central Lancashire astronomer Dr. Victor Debattista, researchers are looking into the mystery of how black holes grow and evolve. For many years, astronomers surmised black holes took on mass when their host galaxies merged, but now new modeling techniques show that black holes in spiral galaxies are […]

Speca – An Intriguing Look Into The Beginning Of A Black Hole Jet

21 Mar , 2012 by Tammy Plotner

[/caption] Its name is SPECA – a Spiral-host Episodic radio galaxy tracing Cluster Accretion. That’s certainly a mouthful of words for this unusual galaxy, but there’s a lot more going on here than just its name. “This is probably the most exotic galaxy with a black hole, ever seen. It is like a ‘missing-link’ between […]

Young Star Cluster In Disintegrated Galaxy Reveals First-Ever Intermediate Mass Black Hole

15 Feb , 2012 by Tammy Plotner

[/caption] Score another first for NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope! Along with observations taken with the Swift X-ray telescope, a team of astronomers have identified a young stellar cluster of stars pointing the way towards the first verified intermediate mass black hole. This grouping of stars provides significant indication that black holes of this type may […]

Determining The Galaxy Collision Rate

30 Oct , 2011 by Tammy Plotner

[/caption] Big galaxies… Little galaxies… But how often do they meet? Thanks to information from some of the latest Hubble surveys, astronomers have been able to more closely estimate galaxy collision rates than ever before. Apparently those that have happened within the last eight to nine billion years have occurred somewhere in-between previous estimates. When […]

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