source: noaj.org
Thursday, March 1, 2012
NGC 4449 Merger
On February 8, the National Astronomical Observatory in Japan announced the discovery of a merger of two dwarf galaxies, NGC 4449 and a smaller nearby companion galaxy. The merger was evident by stellar streams detected in earlier images, but not confirmed. Stellar streams are one of many details astronomers use to identify merger events. Much of the physics behind galaxy formation is being explored today. The mergers of smaller dwarf galaxies have been a relatively unexplored area in astronomy and this discovery helps specifically in the reasoning behind the halo of stars surrounding the NGC 4449 host galaxy.
source: noaj.org
source: noaj.org
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Cool Post. My understanding is that there are paired black holes that "dance" or "waltz" together to eventually form one new massive galaxy. By measuring the velocities of the "dance" when the merger will take place can be approximated. This was a really good topic, especially since these fairly new discoveries will lead to a lot of new understandings of the universe and more discoveries!! :)
ReplyDeleteI'm not too familiar with the subject of black holes although I've heard that sometimes they orbit each other. Always cool to hear new info.
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