Galaxy Collisions and Mergers It was a very powerful and amazing event. But it happens on very slow timescales, such as the prediction that our Milky Way galaxy will collide with its nearest neighbor, Andromeda (M31). But there is no need to fear because there are still 4 billion years left before the two galaxies actually meet. Moreover, the collision and merging process is not fast. It may take hundreds of millions of years to achieve this. Because these collisions take a very long time due to the great distances.
The Hubble Space Telescope is the latest instrument of NASA, the United States and the European Space Agency. An image of the Arp 122 galaxy was sent for study. In fact, Arp 122 consists of two galaxies: NGC 6040, which is a spiral galaxy that appears twisted, crooked and tilted, and the other is LEDA 59642, which is a spiral galaxy facing each other. The pair were in the process of colliding. It is about 570 million light-years from Earth, and in the lower left corner is an elliptical galaxy called NGC 6041.
Galaxies are made up of stars, solar systems, dust, gas, and invisible dark matter. These components disintegrate when they collide, and they may experience significant changes in the gravitational force acting on them. Over time this would completely change the structure of two or more galaxies. This sometimes results in one galaxy eventually merging.
Source: ESA/Hubble and NASA, c. Dalcanton, Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA Acknowledgments: L. Shatz
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