Astronomers have studied the behavior of two spiral galaxies, NGC 5713 and NGC 5719, which are currently approaching each other and will eventually merge into a single entity. Each of them is surrounded by a swarm of satellites performing a complex dance. This research is very important for understanding the future of our own star system.
Collision of galaxies
Scientists working on the Delegate project are carefully studying dance. But not earthly dance, rather cosmic dance. This is exactly how galaxies behave when they move closer to each other and experience mutual gravitational influence. Their movement is not as simple as it may seem.
The article, published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, discusses NGC5713 and NGC5719. These are two fairly massive spiral systems, each surrounded by a cluster of dwarf satellites.
And it is the latter that have attracted the most interest from scientists, as their behavior resembles a delicate dance around two large systems that are already in the final stages of merging. And these observations are indeed important.
Future of the Milky Way
The fact is that NGC5713 and NGC5719 are very similar to the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy. Only with them is what awaits us in 2.5–3 billion years already happening — merger. Scientists already know that this does not pose a serious threat to Earth. But they still have many questions.
The fact is that the two largest galaxies in the Local Group are also surrounded by a large number of satellites, they have a halo of ordinary matter, and somewhere around it there is also dark matter hidden. And all of this is already behaving differently than the models predict.
Everything suggests that the current model of galaxy interaction needs to be revised. But in which direction? This is precisely what scientists are trying to understand by observing the dance of other star systems.
According to phys.org
