date of publication:
August 11, 2022 7:00 GMT
Update date: August 11, 2022 8:10 GMT
Scientists said that two galaxies in the infinite space called the “butterfly galaxies” have begun a merging journey that may be completed after 500 million light years, according to the American network “CNN”.
And a new telescope image shows that the two entangled galaxies will eventually merge and witness a similar final fate to our own Milky Way.
And the network explained in a report on Wednesday, that the “Gemini North” telescope located on the top of a mountain in Hawaii, eastern United States, monitored interacting spiral galaxies about 60 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo.
The network reported that the galactic couple, “NGC 4567” and “NGC 4568”, also known as the “butterfly galaxies”, have just begun to collide because gravity is pulling them together.
“Within 500 million years, the two cosmic systems will complete their merger to form one elliptical galaxy,” the network said, citing a scientific study.
She noted that at this early stage, the centers of the two galaxies are currently 20,000 light-years apart, and each galaxy has maintained a pinwheel shape.
It showed that as the two galaxies become more intertwined, the gravitational forces will lead to multiple events of intense star formation and the original structures of the two galaxies will change and distort them.
She added, “Over time, the two galaxies will dance around each other in circles that get progressively smaller and smaller… This tight dance will push long streams of gas and stars and mix the two galaxies together into something resembling a giant space ball.”
The network indicated that over the course of millions of years, this galactic entanglement will consume or disperse gas and dust to stimulate the birth of stars, which will slow down star formation.
The network reported that observations of other galaxy collisions and computer modeling provided astronomers with more evidence that spiral galaxy mergers create elliptical galaxies.
Once the pairs come together, the resulting formation may look more like the elliptical galaxy known as M “essier 89,” in the constellation Virgo. Once Messier 89 lost most of the gas needed for star formation, very few star births occurred.