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purchankruly t1_j97pc6j wrote

Imagine your night view on your small planet in the tail.

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Ok-Expression7533 t1_j982q4a wrote

Dude looking up into the night sky and, instead of seeing an arm, seeing your entire ass galaxy?? so damn cool

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kipperforskipper t1_j99adgx wrote

Until you're reminded of the fact that your planet might never rejoin the galaxy which keeps pushing further away from the stranded tail.

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Super_Automatic t1_j9bfeiy wrote

How is this bad? Once life has already formed, there is no evidence that belonging to a galaxy is of any use.

It may in fact be advantageous to be in the an area of reduced density, as there is a reduced probability of 'debris'. It is noted in fact, that our own sun travels in a way which oscillates above and below the galactic plane, and that we are currently above the galactic plane, which may explain why we have not experienced outsized meteor events.

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Nethyishere t1_j9d5lco wrote

Until your race needs to leave and move on to new worlds, and you realize that for your race to continue to new worlds you'll have to chase your galaxy down.

Still sounds badass but no doubt stressful to appreciate the scope of.

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Weazy-N420 t1_j99r57j wrote

Or one of those close Galactic neighbors. Could you imagine seeing the whole “Great Spermatozoa” dance across your sky every night or at least seasonally?

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purchankruly t1_j9a3mm5 wrote

Astral aphrodisiacs to the Gleepgorp peoples who live on that planet.

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HappyMaskSalesPerson t1_j97vnok wrote

Hubble telescope still pulling its weight and giving us glorious pictures. I much enjoy this image.

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SeriousPuppet t1_j9bhkly wrote

Is this a real image or recreation?

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danielravennest t1_j9bwdmq wrote

It is definitely from Hubble. It has two sets of detectors, UV to near Infrared, and near IR to mid IR. It has a total of 77 filters, including "no filter" option. Scientific cameras use filters to produce color images because you get 3 times as many pixels as common phone cameras, which have separate pixels for RGB colors.

So depending on filter choice for an image, it may not look like this if you saw it with your eyes directly. But it is still a real image produced by a camera and a telescope.

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Caffeine_and_Alcohol t1_j9921q3 wrote

Curious, how come we arnt seeing photos from the new satellite we put up last year?

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DeanXeL t1_j99m3xu wrote

What the hell are you talking about? We've already gotten plenty of public pictures of JWST in the ONE year it's been in space, plenty of which has been spent calibrating.

This article is just a beautiful picture by Hubble, which is still doing a great job.

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HappyMaskSalesPerson t1_j99xtff wrote

They started coming out shortly before my birthday and it was the best birthday present to myself to treat myself to the pics. I had been looking forward to it for quite some time

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Jed1M1ndTr1ck t1_j97l7oj wrote

Yup, tadpole is the first thing I saw. Yessirree.

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Chilkoot t1_j9933m8 wrote

Don't lie! The first word to enter your mind was polliwog!

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Chiliconkarma t1_j97okk4 wrote

What does it take for a galaxy to unravel like that? What is the likely future of such a situation?

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Davicho77 OP t1_j97owyx wrote

When two galaxies come close to each other, the gravitational forces between them can cause them to distort and deform. In the case of the tadpole galaxy, it is believed that the gravitational forces from the nearby galaxy have pulled material out of the galaxy, creating the long, thin tail-like structure.

This type of interaction is known as "tidal stripping," and it is thought to be responsible for the formation of many other tail-like structures in galaxies. As the two galaxies continue to interact, the tidal forces can cause more material to be pulled out of the tadpole galaxy, further elongating the tail.

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wowsosquare t1_j99cnp1 wrote

>When two galaxies come close to each other...

I thought this was going to be The Talk about when the Mommy galaxy and the Daddy galaxy give each other a very special hug. Was disappoint.

THAT SAID, when galaxies collide, how does it effect what's happening on a any given planet or solar system in the colliding galaxies? Because for the most part everything just zips right past everything else, right? There's very little matter actually colliding

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Kossimer t1_j99xp0w wrote

Right, almost no matter at all collides. The biggest change any star system may find is being ejected from its galaxy, but everything inside the star system keeps orbiting as normal, the planets around the star don't mind. Star formation may be invigorated by colliding and collapsing dust clouds. If life exists on a planet in a colliding galaxy, the other galaxy looming large in the sky would make observation and science virtually impossible for any part of space behind it.

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wowsosquare t1_j99y89i wrote

What about all the dust and hydrogen that's in the interstellar medium and maybe More dense in solar aysi... could the relative speeds of colliding galaxies give you all those dangerous effects of traveling at high speeds?

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Kossimer t1_j9bhim2 wrote

The interstellar medium is less dense outside of galaxies, but it's already very sparse and it doesn't do much. It makes no difference to a star system that might be outside of a galaxy.

A star would have to make a near pass with a black hole or a neutron star to be slingshot into relativistic speeds, which almost certainly would not happen to a single star in a galaxy collision, statistically speaking. A star does not need to travel nearly the speed of light to escape a galaxy, but stars also almost never escape anyway because galactic collisions are so rare and are one of the few events capable of doing it. More likely, a star that escapes a galaxy is somewhere in a tail of matter being pulled away slowly from its home galaxy via a collision like pictured in the post, in a small chunk that the galaxy's gravity never recaptures.

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Lord_Euni t1_j9bmdcu wrote

Which nearby galaxy though? Is it not on the picture of am I blind?

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Emerald_Rain4 t1_j97uiur wrote

This is just crazy. What makes it even more crazy is the other galaxies that are in the picture

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Cybor_wak t1_j980ft8 wrote

Its unimaginable. Everything outside the tadpole is another galaxy. And this is just a tiny spec of the sky around us. Our brains can’t comprehend it.

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de_hell t1_j98pfav wrote

Theres gotta be some kind of life out there. It would be a type of life that our brains really wouldn’t be able to comprehend it.

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escalibur t1_j9a53gq wrote

I’m having a hard time comprehending 420 million light years distance.

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Tobs1414 t1_j9a7oyz wrote

Yeah, this image is technically hundreds of millions of years old. It doesn’t look anything like this now.

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imsahoamtiskaw t1_j9b0ret wrote

Or maybe it does. You never know how long the makeup of that galaxy will last. Sephora could never.

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danielravennest t1_j9bxvkd wrote

When light left this galaxy heading our way, the first land animals were just coming out of the oceans. Distance = Time.

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SeriousPuppet t1_j9bhw21 wrote

I agree. There are so many stars and planets that there has to be at least a few other planets with life. Perhaps many thousands or millions. But at least a few. We can't be the only one in the entire universe.

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de_hell t1_j9bikgq wrote

Even if God created this universe and we are the only ones in this colosally big universe, it would be such a waste of all that space lol.

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jducer t1_j985d46 wrote

The fact that it would take 2800 lifetimes traveling at the speed of light (assuming 100 years per life) to travel that trail blows my fucking mind….

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EmergentSubject2336 t1_j9a6vsd wrote

Yet no time would pass from the photon's perspective.

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imsahoamtiskaw t1_j9b10rk wrote

This one always fucks me up. I've heard and understood the explanation many times, but my human brain just doesn't like dealing with time dilation and numbers that big for some reason.

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patco81 t1_j97cyar wrote

I think my home planet is in there, somewhere.

Beam me up, Snotty.

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Hispanoamericano2000 t1_j98mlwc wrote

The sheer number of entire Galaxies alone in this image apart from the Tadpole Galaxy... holy cow.

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alabasterwilliams t1_j97hb7x wrote

It’s a good thing the whalers didn’t discover this first, or it would have a wildly different name.

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RainbowFartss t1_j98dhvo wrote

We're whalers on the moon. We carry a harpoon.

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alabasterwilliams t1_j98ewim wrote

But there ain’t no whales, so we tell tall tales, and sing our whaling tune!

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ill_Skillz t1_j9bk3cm wrote

One of these days, Alice. Bang, zoom... straight to the moon!

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terabranford t1_j97qx8d wrote

I realize something like this may take forever to answer, but: is the tail moving at all?

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Finnbalt t1_j97zif0 wrote

Everything in space is moving.

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terabranford t1_j981kan wrote

Sorry, i was rushed and didnt make myself clear.

I meant, how is it moving? Separately? Away? Synced??

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Jackalodeath t1_j98fgej wrote

Got nosey; according to this article by NASA, it's presumed the tail will "break off" over the course of its progenitor galaxy's lifetime; a long fucken time from now. Its thought to have been formed from a collision with a smaller, blue, "blob-like" galaxy - which is visible in the upper left of the Tadpoles' "head," inside one of its spiral arms - that has managed to get about 300,000 light-years away from its "victim" since.

All info gleaned from linked article.

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terabranford t1_j98gbl6 wrote

Ah, ok. Thank you.

I thought as much. I was just hoping to spark some good old fashioned debate and theorizing.

fail

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Jackalodeath t1_j98hlix wrote

Ah. Well, spurred me to learn something, so thanks on my part!

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Barrrrrrnd t1_j989qeq wrote

There are SO MANY galaxies in this picture. Jeez.

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TOGHeinz t1_j9bsvb7 wrote

These kind of pictures always blow my mind. The main subject is absolutely fascinating. But just taking a gander beyond and seeing the sheer number of galaxies, realizing the distances and stars in each, understanding it’s only a tiny fraction of the sky and this is all around us in every direction.. it’s staggering.

Happy cake day.

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Staltrad t1_j99d6f3 wrote

I wonder what happens when he reaches the Egg galaxy 😅

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MovingFjordward t1_j97xn88 wrote

The night sky views from anywhere in that galaxy must be incredible!!

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Horror-Professional1 t1_j97lwwl wrote

Honestly every time I see images like this I am blown away at how amazing and huge our galaxy is. It’s like an ecosystem of cosmic bodies instead of animals. Beautiful.

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Decronym t1_j98tbns wrote

Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:

|Fewer Letters|More Letters| |-------|---------|---| |ESA|European Space Agency| |HST|Hubble Space Telescope| |JWST|James Webb infra-red Space Telescope|

^(1 acronyms in this thread; )^(the most compressed thread commented on today)^( has acronyms.)
^([Thread #8587 for this sub, first seen 20th Feb 2023, 03:14]) ^[FAQ] ^([Full list]) ^[Contact] ^([Source code])

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Rath_MC t1_j99xuix wrote

can someone explain what's causing a disturbance?
is it collision with another galaxy or something?

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morningcoffee1 t1_j9asrcq wrote

Yup. Collision or a close flyby. For galaxies this is relatively common. Our own Milky Way

will experience something similar with the Andromeda Galaxy, because we're on a collision course.

But no worry, in general galaxies collide, but individual stars do not. Plus it's still a bit of a wait.

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Rath_MC t1_j9aydii wrote

yesss i knew about the collision with the Andromeda they are doing the dance of death.
Hope we stick teill then to witness it.

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morningcoffee1 t1_j9b2w8v wrote

actually... its a dance of life :-)

If you look at the above image you see a blue hue, and even some bright blue areas: that is all star formation of new hot blue (O& B) type stars... billions of them. And that all occurs because of the collision.

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Rath_MC t1_j9b8z4g wrote

yess that's a unique way of seeing that.
Man I love how our universe works the cycle of star formation inside the nebulas. It's so wonderful and mind boggling.

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Gh0sth4nd t1_j9a5dbg wrote

420 million lightyears an unimaginable distance

i wonder if someone from a far away galaxy is looking at the milky way and wonders if the alien life they are looking for is there to find

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pixoxri t1_j9aqs6h wrote

420 MILLION lightyears. I can't even fully grasp how something can be so unbelievably huge and it's still just a tiny, tiny dot in all that space. If I could wish for one thing in my life, it would be to have been born much later in time when we know more about space. It's so hard to comprehend and it saddens me that I will die before we really know what it all means.

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SwampGypsy t1_j9b3dpd wrote

Born too late to explore the oceans & discover new lands, born too early to explore the stars & discover new planets.

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Durable_me t1_j9aw4e2 wrote

It's crazy to see that in this image 95% of the light spots are also galaxies...

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badmamerjammer t1_j9bimgt wrote

the scale in this image and description is melting my brain

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LordSalem t1_j9bkr11 wrote

Imagine you're on a rock in a solar system for thousands of years, you develop a civilization and just as you're starting to explore a night sky you realize another galaxy will collide with the one you're in. Years and years of preparation and you've calculated your planet will be ok, but your entire solar system will change trajectory away from the galactic center. Any hope you had of finding life in a nearby solar system is gone. Your civilization will never be trapped, alone, on this one rock for eternity.

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Monoken3 t1_j99b8r9 wrote

Somebody is getting yeeted from the tail as we speak

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aupa0205 t1_j99bahx wrote

Man I could’ve used this galaxy in my recent Stellaris playthrough. Those choke points though.

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PlutoDelic t1_j99esfc wrote

Safe to assume this is caused by a merge? This is incredible, first time seeing it.

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Weazy-N420 t1_j99qyij wrote

Absolutely Stunning!!! But….. I would’ve totally called it something else…….. : D

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dougfunnybitch t1_j9bj99n wrote

This would be way more interesting if you just left it as “Tadpole Galaxy”

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