Hubble Astronomer Creates Spectacular Galaxy Collision Visualization for the National Air and Space Museum

Artist's Concept Running Time: 54 seconds

In this scientific visualization, two spiral galaxies are set on a collision course. As one slices through the other, both are disrupted. The tidal forces of gravity produce long tails of material streaming away from the collision. The central regions relatively quickly fall together and merge. The visualization is based on research data from a supercomputer simulation, with stars shown in yellow and gas shown blue. Time passes at about 10 million years per second, lasting a total of about 500 million years. Such a collision may occur for our Milky Way Galaxy and the neighboring Andromeda Galaxy in about five billion years.

Visualization By : Frank Summers (Space Telescope Science Institute)

Simulation By: Chris Mihos (Case Western Reserve University) and Lars Hernquist (Harvard University)