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Credit & Copyright: TNG Collaboration,
MPCDF,
FAS Harvard U.;
Music: World's Sunrise (YouTube: Jimena Contreras)
Explanation:
How did we get here?
We know that we live on a
planet orbiting a
star orbiting a
galaxy, but how did all of this form?
Since our universe
moves
too slowly to watch,
faster-moving computer simulations are
created to help
find out.
Specifically,
this featured video from the
IllustrisTNG collaboration
tracks gas from the early universe
(redshift 12) until today
(redshift 0).
As the simulation begins, ambient gas falls into and accumulates in a
region of relatively high
gravity.
After a few billion years, a well-defined center materializes from a
strange and fascinating
cosmic dance.
Gas blobs -- some representing
small satellite galaxies
-- continue to fall into and become absorbed by the
rotating galaxy as the present epoch is reached and the video ends.
For the
Milky Way Galaxy,
however, big mergers may not be over --
recent evidence indicates that our large spiral disk Galaxy
will collide and coalesce with the slightly larger
Andromeda spiral disk galaxy in the next few billion
years.
Open Science:
Browse 3,000+ codes in the Astrophysics Source Code Library
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: galaxy formation - spiral galaxy
Publications with words: galaxy formation - spiral galaxy
See also: