Like Watching a Train Wreck in Slow Motion
Arp 302 provides a textbook example of colliding galaxies seen in the early stages of their interaction. The edge-on galaxy near the top of the image and the face-on galaxy at the bottom of the image will merge millions of years from now -- much like the Milky Way and Andromeda will do in a few billions years. The image from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory (purple) is shown here along with optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope (red, green, blue). Arp 302 is located about 450 million light years from Earth.
Comments:
Guy - nice story...maybe a bit more about the scientist who actually is behind this story- a doctoral student at the Harvard-SmithsonianCenter for Astrophysics in Cambridge, MA for instance...
A train wreck in slow motion...yes, if you slow the film enough so that the wreck lasts for millions of years. That's a lot like having a still picture of a train wreck, for most of us.
The scientist who should be discussed is, Halton C. Arp, of the Max Planck Institute. Arp's thesis, rejected by American astronomers but embraced by many outside the USA, is that red shift measures are wrong. I refer you to his numerous articles and books.<br><br>
