Rare ‘cosmic joust' reveals how galaxies battle and evolve 11 billion light years away
And moments like these allow scientists to deepen their understanding of galaxy formation, star birth, and the detailed forces that work in the distant universe.
One such special event recently caught the attention of astronomers, telling how galaxies influence each other during their lifetimes. Through the lens of the world's most powerful telescopes, researchers have witnessed a cosmic duel.
A rare cosmic duel!
Astronomers have observed a powerful interaction between two galaxies, moving toward each other at an astonishing speed of over 1.8 million kilometers per hour.
This event happened over nearly four years of observation, and it shows one galaxy emitting intense radiation that damages its partner, and hinders its ability to form new stars.
A
cosmic joust
Scientists describe this extraordinary encounter as a 'cosmic joust,' where the two galaxies that are located about 11 billion light-years from Earth are gradually merging into a single, larger galaxy. The radiation emitted from a bright core called a quasar, powered by a supermassive black hole, pushes away gas clouds in the neighboring galaxy.
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These gas clouds are essential for star formation, and their dispersal effectively stops the birth of new stars in that galaxy.
'It's an exciting field to study. Research like this can teach us more about the birth of new galaxies and observe how they evolve over time,' said astrophysicist Dong-Woo Kim in an interview with CNN.
Using Very Large Telescopes, the researchers discovered that the quasar's radiation is about a thousand times stronger than what is found in our own Milky Way.
This powerful energy breaks apart hydrogen gas clouds in the companion galaxy, making them too small and diffuse to create stars. Meanwhile, some of the material from the affected galaxy feeds the quasar, giving it even more energy to unleash.
'At first, we just knew there was some molecular gas between the (attacking galaxy's) quasar and us. It's only after we started to look with bigger telescopes that we detected there were actually two galaxies,' explained researcher Pasquier Noterdaeme.
This observation marks the first time scientists have directly seen how a quasar's radiation influences the star-forming gas in a nearby galaxy a phenomenon previously only theorized.
Detecting this rare event was no small feat. Quasar light is so intense it usually outshines and hides nearby galaxies, making such discoveries as difficult as 'finding a needle in a haystack,' according to study coauthor Sergei Balashev.
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