[Demosthenes]

I noticed all of us who were asking for a science forum haven't done much to further its being included so I thought I'd post this. I'm quite interested in astronomy myself and always get a little rush from viewing the pictures from the hubble. (soory I don't know how to the picture on here) Anyway the article is about how a large galaxy has been observed absorbing a smaller one. Which may seem a little basic but it was only a theory until this discovery by Austrailian and US scientists. So yah Aussies! and Yah Americans!

I have a pretty good book titled "The Magnificent Universe" at home. I'd be happy to post some of te articles if anyone would care to see them...

WASHINGTON (Aug. 7) - A big galaxy is gobbling a tiny one, just as astronomers have long suspected, and for the first time there is photographic evidence of this kind of galactic cannibalism, snapped by the Hubble Space Telescope.

The orbiting telescope captured the image of the gorging galaxy as part of a much larger picture of a long-tailed galaxy that has become known as the Tadpole. This photo was one of the first to be released last year after a new advanced camera was installed aboard Hubble.

The Tadpole dominates the image, but the second-brightest object is a massive spiral galaxy seen in the lower left corner, with an apparent companion nearby that is seemingly linked to the bigger galaxy.

U.S. and Australian astronomers were intrigued by this mismatched pair of cosmic objects, but the Hubble image alone was not enough to confirm that this was a case of a dominant galaxy feeding on a much smaller dwarf galaxy.

To do this, they used the Keck Telescope in Hawaii, which was able to show plumes of stars streaming away from the dwarf galaxy's heart toward the big galaxy, the astronomers said in a statement. The galactic pair is located about 2 billion light-years from Earth. A light-year is about 6 trillion miles, the distance light travels in a year.

Their findings were published on Thursday in Science Express.

The tiny galaxy is being ripped apart by the gravitational forces of the larger one, and the dwarf galaxy's stolen stars will wind up as part of a spherical halo surrounding the flattened disk of the larger spiral galaxy, the astronomers said.

REMNANT TRAILS OF STARS

The big galaxy will continue to transform its smaller companion for billions of years, said astronomer Duncan Forbes of Swinburne University in Hawthorn, Australia.

''After a few billion years, it may be completely disrupted, leaving only a remnant trail, or relic stream or ghost, behind in the halo of the spiral,'' Forbes said in answer to e-mailed questions about his research.

Astronomers who study how galaxies form and transform have reckoned that such interactions between galaxies would occur, but this is the first time that a Hubble image, enhanced by observations by the ground-based Keck telescope and with the help of computer simulation, has illustrated this phenomenon.

There could be more discoveries, since Forbes and his team plan to use Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys next year to look at nearby spiral galaxies and globular clusters of old stars.

''Our project is to study the globular clusters around spiral galaxies, but if there are any disrupted dwarfs present, we will see them,'' Forbes said by e-mail.

In fact, cosmic cannibalism is taking place in Earth's general neighborhood, Forbes said.

The Milky Way, which contains Earth, is currently interacting with both the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, two nearby galaxies that are much larger than the dwarf Forbes and his colleagues studied.

Another galaxy, called the Sagittarius dwarf, was discovered in 1994, but that dwarf is almost totally disrupted, and astronomers only detected it by its remnant trail of stars, Forbes said.

[Krasniy Yastreb]

I remember they tried to make a computer program to simulate galaxies colliding down to star level. Needless to say it frequently crashed due to sheer data overload.

Interesting article though, thanks for that.

[bach]

seems like finally they decided The Hubble's future

The Hubble Space Telescope has been granted a conditional reprieve, with an expert panel recommending that NASA consider sending a crew of astronauts at the end of the decade to extend its career, rather than dropping it out of orbit, as has been planned. The committee said Thursday that NASA should first make sure that Hubble could perform science not available otherwise. The Hubble's future has been threatened since the breakup of the Columbia shuttle. But NASA should be prepared for a range of possibilities, the report said, from no more shuttle missions to two. The Hubble Space Telescope has been granted a conditional reprieve, with an expert panel recommending that NASA consider sending a crew of astronauts at the end of the decade to extend its career, rather than dropping it out of orbit, as has been planned. The committee said Thursday that NASA should first make sure that Hubble could perform science not available otherwise. The Hubble's future has been threatened since the breakup of the Columbia shuttle. But NASA should be prepared for a range of possibilities, the report said, from no more shuttle missions to two.

http://www.iht.com/articles/106604.html

[Yeddi]

I did a whole unit on astronomy one year. We had a program called Skyglobe that wasn't as powerful as the one krasniy is describing but it was pretty cool. Thats where i got the picture for my sig. praise for anyone who can guess the major constellation that's centred
[Hint: My Birthday is the 31st of August. That could help.]

But in Physics this semester we're learning all about gravity adn orbits n stuff its so interesting, adn amazing. $10 to the person who discovers Gravity waves

[Demosthenes]

uh...could it be the constellation Virgo...

[Yeddi]

Bingo... i relised after i wrote the message that it wasn't as clear as i thought it was, i'm glad i put the hint in. Anyway, for your praise,
*spins Praise You - Fatboy Slim*

[Classical Liberal]

I can't believe I overlooked this thread! I love astronomy, physics, and such. I am an amateur though, but I still know some... and information is easy to come by.

[smashthestate]

Funny you should mention this...

My major is theoretical physics, although I've only begun to scratch the surface of it. This is my first year taking classes which will fulfill credits for my major.

[Classical Liberal]

Alas, I am a kid. I have quite a few more years of math ahead of me... I'll be taking Pre-Calculus next year