APOD: Arp 87: Merging Galaxies from Hubble (2019 Aug 11)

Post a reply


This question is a means of preventing automated form submissions by spambots.
Smilies
:D :) :ssmile: :( :o :shock: :? 8-) :lol2: :x :P :oops: :cry: :evil: :roll: :wink: :!: :?: :idea: :arrow: :| :mrgreen:
View more smilies

BBCode is ON
[img] is ON
[url] is ON
Smilies are ON

Topic review
   

Expand view Topic review: APOD: Arp 87: Merging Galaxies from Hubble (2019 Aug 11)

Re: APOD: Arp 87: Merging Galaxies from Hubble (2019 Aug 11)

by BDanielMayfield » Tue Aug 13, 2019 6:38 am

geckzilla wrote: Tue Aug 13, 2019 6:14 am Astronomers for some reason have a long history of using crappy words to describe the process of galactic interaction and merging. When I write about it myself I try to avoid harrowing anthropocentric descriptors. I describe it as a dance that leads to changes for both galaxies rather than a violent event or cannibalism (why do they call it cannibalism SO MUCH?)... anyway that's what you get when men run the show.
Yes. Mergers is a more apt descriptor.

Re: APOD: Arp 87: Merging Galaxies from Hubble (2019 Aug 11)

by geckzilla » Tue Aug 13, 2019 6:14 am

Astronomers for some reason have a long history of using crappy words to describe the process of galactic interaction and merging. When I write about it myself I try to avoid harrowing anthropocentric descriptors. I describe it as a dance that leads to changes for both galaxies rather than a violent event or cannibalism (why do they call it cannibalism SO MUCH?)... anyway that's what you get when men run the show.

Re: APOD: Arp 87: Merging Galaxies from Hubble (2019 Aug 11)

by Chris Peterson » Mon Aug 12, 2019 7:45 pm

BDanielMayfield wrote: Mon Aug 12, 2019 7:28 pm
Chris Peterson wrote: Mon Aug 12, 2019 5:44 pm
BDanielMayfield wrote: Mon Aug 12, 2019 5:35 pm

But pferkul has a good point too. When galaxies "collide" their stars, having such vast distances between them in the first place, will almost never collide. The "violence" of an event that takes a billion or more years to occur is overstated for dramatic effect.

Bruce
The "violence" I see describes the collisions of gas and dust, not stars. And the time scale seems to me irrelevant. I don't think it's unreasonable to describe as "violent" any physical process that releases a lot of energy over a relatively short period of time, regardless of the spatial scale, regardless of the temporal scale.
Ok, if we're calling a billion years "a relatively short period of time" :!:
I don't think we're talking about a billion years. These periods of collision leading to star formation are much shorter- a few hundred million years, perhaps. And yes, that is relatively short given orbital periods measured in billions of years.

Re: APOD: Arp 87: Merging Galaxies from Hubble (2019 Aug 11)

by BDanielMayfield » Mon Aug 12, 2019 7:28 pm

Chris Peterson wrote: Mon Aug 12, 2019 5:44 pm
BDanielMayfield wrote: Mon Aug 12, 2019 5:35 pm
Chris Peterson wrote: Mon Aug 12, 2019 2:43 pm

Except that puffs of smoke don't interact with each other to create temperatures high enough to initiate nuclear fusion.
But pferkul has a good point too. When galaxies "collide" their stars, having such vast distances between them in the first place, will almost never collide. The "violence" of an event that takes a billion or more years to occur is overstated for dramatic effect.

Bruce
The "violence" I see describes the collisions of gas and dust, not stars. And the time scale seems to me irrelevant. I don't think it's unreasonable to describe as "violent" any physical process that releases a lot of energy over a relatively short period of time, regardless of the spatial scale, regardless of the temporal scale.
Ok, if we're calling a billion years "a relatively short period of time" :!:

Re: APOD: Arp 87: Merging Galaxies from Hubble (2019 Aug 11)

by neufer » Mon Aug 12, 2019 6:16 pm

Click to play embedded YouTube video.
Chris Peterson wrote: Mon Aug 12, 2019 5:44 pm
BDanielMayfield wrote: Mon Aug 12, 2019 5:35 pm
When galaxies "collide" their stars, having such vast distances between them in the first place, will almost never collide. The "violence" of an event that takes a billion or more years to occur is overstated for dramatic effect.
The "violence" I see describes the collisions of gas and dust, not stars. And the time scale seems to me irrelevant. I don't think it's unreasonable to describe as "violent" any physical process that releases a lot of energy over a relatively short period of time, regardless of the spatial scale, regardless of the temporal scale.

Re: APOD: Arp 87: Merging Galaxies from Hubble (2019 Aug 11)

by Chris Peterson » Mon Aug 12, 2019 5:44 pm

BDanielMayfield wrote: Mon Aug 12, 2019 5:35 pm
Chris Peterson wrote: Mon Aug 12, 2019 2:43 pm
pferkul wrote: Mon Aug 12, 2019 2:33 pm The word "violent" all depends on your point of view. On the one hand, altering the course of a hundred billion suns requires titanic forces, but on the other, the interaction of galaxies appears like puffs of smoke gently mingling over the course of a billion years.
Except that puffs of smoke don't interact with each other to create temperatures high enough to initiate nuclear fusion.
But pferkul has a good point too. When galaxies "collide" their stars, having such vast distances between them in the first place, will almost never collide. The "violence" of an event that takes a billion or more years to occur is overstated for dramatic effect.

Bruce
The "violence" I see describes the collisions of gas and dust, not stars. And the time scale seems to me irrelevant. I don't think it's unreasonable to describe as "violent" any physical process that releases a lot of energy over a relatively short period of time, regardless of the spatial scale, regardless of the temporal scale.

Re: APOD: Arp 87: Merging Galaxies from Hubble (2019 Aug 11)

by BDanielMayfield » Mon Aug 12, 2019 5:35 pm

Chris Peterson wrote: Mon Aug 12, 2019 2:43 pm
pferkul wrote: Mon Aug 12, 2019 2:33 pm The word "violent" all depends on your point of view. On the one hand, altering the course of a hundred billion suns requires titanic forces, but on the other, the interaction of galaxies appears like puffs of smoke gently mingling over the course of a billion years.
Except that puffs of smoke don't interact with each other to create temperatures high enough to initiate nuclear fusion.
But pferkul has a good point too. When galaxies "collide" their stars, having such vast distances between them in the first place, will almost never collide. The "violence" of an event that takes a billion or more years to occur is overstated for dramatic effect.

Bruce

Re: APOD: Arp 87: Merging Galaxies from Hubble (2019 Aug 11)

by Chris Peterson » Mon Aug 12, 2019 2:43 pm

pferkul wrote: Mon Aug 12, 2019 2:33 pm The word "violent" all depends on your point of view. On the one hand, altering the course of a hundred billion suns requires titanic forces, but on the other, the interaction of galaxies appears like puffs of smoke gently mingling over the course of a billion years.
Except that puffs of smoke don't interact with each other to create temperatures high enough to initiate nuclear fusion.

Re: APOD: Arp 87: Merging Galaxies from Hubble (2019 Aug 11)

by pferkul » Mon Aug 12, 2019 2:33 pm

The word "violent" all depends on your point of view. On the one hand, altering the course of a hundred billion suns requires titanic forces, but on the other, the interaction of galaxies appears like puffs of smoke gently mingling over the course of a billion years.

Re: APOD: Arp 87: Merging Galaxies from Hubble (2019 Aug 11)

by neufer » Mon Aug 12, 2019 12:29 pm

Ann wrote: Mon Aug 12, 2019 1:31 am
Alter-ego, I didn't see your post before I posted mine.

Thanks for pointing out the Antlia 2 dwarf galaxy as the likely culprit behind our galaxy's unusual shape!
While it may well be true that "the tidal strength of the Sgr dwarf is insucient [sic] to explain the disturbances in the outer gas of the Galaxy" that doesn't make the recently discovered dim distant Antlia 2 dwarf galaxy the culprit based on one tentative paper.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite ... _Milky_Way
https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=insouciant wrote:
insouciant (adj.) 1828, from French insouciant "careless, thoughtless, heedless,"

from in- "not" (see in- (1)) + souciant "caring," present participle of soucier "to care,"
from Latin sollicitare "to agitate" (see solicit).

Re: APOD: Arp 87: Merging Galaxies from Hubble (2019 Aug 11)

by Ann » Mon Aug 12, 2019 1:31 am

Leon1949Green wrote: Sun Aug 11, 2019 1:23 pm Regarding the more distant galaxy not interacting with Arp 87. Now that we understand that the disc of our Milky Way is a bit distorted, what is being looked at to determine who we've encountered already to cause it to be that way? Thanks!
Warped disk galaxy ESO 510-G13. Photo: Hubble.
The Integral Sign galaxy, UGC 3697. NRAO/AUI/NSF















Good question, Leon. Really warped disk galaxies appear to be very unusual. I myself am an avid scrutinizer of galaxy images, and I can testify to the fact that I very rarely get to see strongly warped disk galaxies.

It appears that the Milky Way may be almost as warped as ESO 510-G13. I can't even begin to guess why our galaxy has such an unusual shape, although interactions with the Magellanic Clouds is really the only thing that comes to mind.

Ann

EDIT: Alter-ego, I didn't see your post before I posted mine. Thanks for pointing out the Antlia 2 dwarf galaxy as the likely culprit behind our galaxy's unusual shape!

Re: APOD: Arp 87: Merging Galaxies from Hubble (2019 Aug 11)

by alter-ego » Mon Aug 12, 2019 1:21 am

neufer wrote: Sun Aug 11, 2019 6:13 pm
BDanielMayfield wrote: Sun Aug 11, 2019 3:29 pm
Leon1949Green wrote: Sun Aug 11, 2019 1:23 pm
Regarding the more distant galaxy not interacting with Arp 87. Now that we understand that the disc of our Milky Way is a bit distorted, what is being looked at to determine who we've encountered already to cause it to be that way? Thanks!
Are the Magellanic Clouds massive enough to have caused this warp in the MW?
The problem is their distance (and, to some extent, low angular motion).
Gravitational tidal forces drop off inversely with distance CUBED.
Solely talking about mass, apparently the MCs masses are enough to perturb the MW plane. However in a recent paper, ANTLIA2'S ROLE IN DRIVING THE RIPPLES IN THE OUTER GAS DISK OF THE GALAXY, the recently discovered dwarf galaxy, Antlia 2 is the best candidate collider to produce the observed MW distortions. GAIA measurements (again) have provided trajectory data to feed into to the collision calculations. It is expected the data releases will reduce uncertainties. The authors rule out the Sgr dwarf and both MCs as progenitors.
Paper wrote:In summary, the orbital distributions for Antlia 2 have a signicant tail of low pericenters of 10 kpc for a
range of Milky Way masses commonly cited in the literature (from ~1012to 2x1012M☉).
A close interaction of this kind with a 1:100 mass ratio perturber is sufficient to explain the planar disturbances observed in the outer
HI disk of the Milky Way. Moreover, the phase of the disturbances has a flat radial variation for the HI data,
as do the Antlia 2 simulations with low pericenters, independently confirming that low pericenters are needed
to match the disturbances manifest in the outer gas disk of the Galaxy. We show that the tidal strength of the
Sgr dwarf is insucient to explain the disturbances in the outer gas of the Galaxy. Of the other tidal players of
the Milky Way, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds are too distant and have not approached closer in the
recent past (Besla et al. 2007; Besla et al. 2012) to account for this level of Fourier power in the outer HI disk.
Thus, Antlia 2 is likely the driver of the observed large perturbations on the outskirts of our Galaxy.
With that said, the progenitor mass is in question:
S&T article wrote: But not everybody agrees with this conclusion. Vasily Belokurov (University of Cambridge, UK) cites a series of less than probable assumptions required for the Antlia 2 scenario. “Their simulations are rather simple and are produced for one realization of Antlia 2 only,” Belokurov explains. “There are already constraints on the mass of Antlia 2 and at the moment the mass appears lower than what they need.”
I suspect the uncertain contribution from Dark Matter in Antlia 2 is a big factor coupled with the uncertainty in total luminosity due to the poor visibility of this ultra-diffuse galaxy. Maybe improved GAIA data will at least narrow the MW collision zone.

Re: APOD: Arp 87: Merging Galaxies from Hubble (2019 Aug 11)

by Chris Peterson » Sun Aug 11, 2019 8:39 pm

DL MARTIN wrote: Sun Aug 11, 2019 8:30 pm Without context doubt remains that 2+2=4. In other words, until astronomers know what happens between then and now, claims of certainty are dubious.
Well, we can't see then, and we're unlikely to be around as a species long enough to see the future of this interaction, so all we have is now. Which is actually quite enough to draw some very solid conclusions.

The Whorl According to Arp 87

by neufer » Sun Aug 11, 2019 8:35 pm

Click to play embedded YouTube video.
Chris Peterson wrote: Sun Aug 11, 2019 8:09 pm
The likelihood that a pair of galaxies would be coincidentally passing each other close enough to interact, with sufficient relative velocities that they are not in closed orbits around each other, seems vanishingly small. Indeed, I don't think any such galaxies have ever been observed. Galaxies form in clusters, with the members gravitationally bound.

Re: APOD: Arp 87: Merging Galaxies from Hubble (2019 Aug 11)

by DL MARTIN » Sun Aug 11, 2019 8:30 pm

Without context doubt remains that 2+2=4. In other words, until astronomers know what happens between then and now, claims of certainty are dubious.

Re: APOD: Arp 87: Merging Galaxies from Hubble (2019 Aug 11)

by Chris Peterson » Sun Aug 11, 2019 8:09 pm

ems57fcva wrote: Sun Aug 11, 2019 7:05 pm I am not seeing merging galaxies. NGC 3808B certainly came close to and has interacted with NGC 3808A. But I am not seeing a well-established bridge linking the galaxies. Instead I am seeing a lot of gas in front of NGC 3808A and then gas going around NCG 3808B. A connection may remain between the two, but it is tenuous at best. I read what I am seeing as indicating that NGC 3808B is coming most straight towards us, and is not gravitationally bound to NGC 3808A.
I don't think any of these inferences are reliable (or even possible) from examining an image like this. Certainly, the relative velocities of different parts of these galaxies will have been measured. The likelihood that a pair of galaxies would be coincidentally passing each other close enough to interact, with sufficient relative velocities that they are not in closed orbits around each other, seems vanishingly small. Indeed, I don't think any such galaxies have ever been observed. Galaxies form in clusters, with the members gravitationally bound.

Re: APOD: Arp 87: Merging Galaxies from Hubble (2019 Aug 11)

by ems57fcva » Sun Aug 11, 2019 7:05 pm

I am not seeing merging galaxies. NGC 3808B certainly came close to and has interacted with NGC 3808A. But I am not seeing a well-established bridge linking the galaxies. Instead I am seeing a lot of gas in front of NGC 3808A and then gas going around NCG 3808B. A connection may remain between the two, but it is tenuous at best. I read what I am seeing as indicating that NGC 3808B is coming most straight towards us, and is not gravitationally bound to NGC 3808A.

Re: APOD: Arp 87: Merging Galaxies from Hubble (2019 Aug 11)

by neufer » Sun Aug 11, 2019 6:28 pm

BDanielMayfield wrote: Sun Aug 11, 2019 3:14 pm
Ann wrote: Sun Aug 11, 2019 2:29 pm
BDanielMayfield wrote: Sun Aug 11, 2019 1:47 pm
But, as we know, one shouldn't trust everything one reads.

I don't even let forecasts of ultimate heat death 'bring me down'. :wink:

Human reasoning on both the deep past and the deep future is handicapped by lack of information.
To each his (or her) own, Bruce! :wink: :D
That is the nicest agree to disagree I've ever received. Thanks.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jedem_das_Seine wrote:

<<"Jedem das Seine" is the literal German translation of Latin suum cuique, a fundamental juridical concept meaning "to each his own" or "to each what he deserves". Jedem das Seine has been an idiomatic German expression for several centuries. For example, it is found in the works of Martin Luther and contemporaries. It appears in the title of a cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach, Nur jedem das Seine (BWV 163), first performed at Weimar in 1715. Some nineteenth-century comedies bear the title Jedem das Seine, including works by Johann Friedrich Rochlitz and Caroline Bernstein. It is similar to "Whatever is, is right" employed by Leibniz, Hegel, and Scrope.

An ironic twist on the proverb, "jedem das Seine, mir das Meiste" ("to each his own, to me the most"), has been known in the reservoir of German idioms for a long time, including its inclusion in Carl Zuckmayer's 1931 play The Captain of Köpenick.

In 1937, the Nazis constructed the Buchenwald concentration camp, 7 km from Weimar, Germany. The motto Jedem das Seine was placed in the camp's main entrance gate. The gates were designed by Franz Ehrlich, a former student of the Bauhaus art school, who had been imprisoned in the camp because he was a communist.>>

Re: APOD: Arp 87: Merging Galaxies from Hubble (2019 Aug 11)

by Tekija » Sun Aug 11, 2019 6:24 pm

Re: APOD: Arp 87: Merging Galaxies from Hubble (2019 Aug 11)

by neufer » Sun Aug 11, 2019 6:13 pm

BDanielMayfield wrote: Sun Aug 11, 2019 3:29 pm
Leon1949Green wrote: Sun Aug 11, 2019 1:23 pm
Regarding the more distant galaxy not interacting with Arp 87. Now that we understand that the disc of our Milky Way is a bit distorted, what is being looked at to determine who we've encountered already to cause it to be that way? Thanks!
Are the Magellanic Clouds massive enough to have caused this warp in the MW?
The problem is their distance (and, to some extent, low angular motion).
Gravitational tidal forces drop off inversely with distance CUBED.

Re: APOD: Arp 87: Merging Galaxies from Hubble (2019 Aug 11)

by BDanielMayfield » Sun Aug 11, 2019 3:29 pm

Leon1949Green wrote: Sun Aug 11, 2019 1:23 pm Regarding the more distant galaxy not interacting with Arp 87. Now that we understand that the disc of our Milky Way is a bit distorted, what is being looked at to determine who we've encountered already to cause it to be that way? Thanks!
Are the Magellanic Clouds massive enough to have caused this warp in the MW?

Re: APOD: Arp 87: Merging Galaxies from Hubble (2019 Aug 11)

by BDanielMayfield » Sun Aug 11, 2019 3:14 pm

Ann wrote: Sun Aug 11, 2019 2:29 pm
BDanielMayfield wrote: Sun Aug 11, 2019 1:47 pm
Ann wrote:I read once that complexity happens on the way to uniformity and heat death.
But, as we know, one shouldn't trust everything one reads.

I don't even let forecasts of ultimate heat death 'bring me down'. :wink:

Human reasoning on both the deep past and the deep future is handicapped by lack of information.

Bruce
To each his (or her) own, Bruce! :wink: :D

Ann
That is the nicest agree to disagree I've ever received. Thanks.

Re: APOD: Arp 87: Merging Galaxies from Hubble (2019 Aug 11)

by Ann » Sun Aug 11, 2019 2:29 pm

BDanielMayfield wrote: Sun Aug 11, 2019 1:47 pm
Ann wrote:I read once that complexity happens on the way to uniformity and heat death.
But, as we know, one shouldn't trust everything one reads.

I don't even let forecasts of ultimate heat death 'bring me down'. :wink:

Human reasoning on both the deep past and the deep future is handicapped by lack of information.

Bruce
To each his (or her) own, Bruce! :wink: :D

Ann

Re: APOD: Arp 87: Merging Galaxies from Hubble (2019 Aug 11)

by BDanielMayfield » Sun Aug 11, 2019 1:47 pm

Ann wrote:I read once that complexity happens on the way to uniformity and heat death.
But, as we know, one shouldn't trust everything one reads.

I don't even let forecasts of ultimate heat death 'bring me down'. :wink:

Human reasoning on both the deep past and the deep future is handicapped by lack of information.

Bruce

Re: APOD: Arp 87: Merging Galaxies from Hubble (2019 Aug 11)

by Leon1949Green » Sun Aug 11, 2019 1:23 pm

Regarding the more distant galaxy not interacting with Arp 87. Now that we understand that the disc of our Milky Way is a bit distorted, what is being looked at to determine who we've encountered already to cause it to be that way? Thanks!

Top