Starship Asterisk*

astrolabe wrote:Hello Sputnick,

I think it's like Tinkerbell through the leaf myself, but your right, redshift is where it's at. I doubt if it was ever a binary BH system that came apart because of like charges repelling. Which brings up an old thought of mine (oh no! Not that!) If BH"s are so prevalent down to say quantum level in size, what DOES keep 'em apart?

astrolabe wrote:Hello All,

The "gap" in the upper part of the larger Galaxy's disk appears to be complementary to the shape and orientation of the smaller. Illusory?

astrolabe wrote:Hello Sputnick,

Scraped 'em off myself- from myself, even threw in a little egg for good measure. Oh, the perils of not being perfect!

astrolabe wrote:Hello Sputnick,

I wll, wouldn't mind going there myself. I know I've got some tar and feather's left over somewhere. if when we get there we'll have to have a chat.

astrolabe wrote:Hello All,

My use of the term TAR BABY was in bad taste, unfair, and inappropriate, my apologies.

astrolabe wrote:Hello Sputnick,

What energies?

astrolabe wrote:I wonder if ole' "2K" has posted yet.

astrolabe wrote:You people are quicker than most normal human beings.

astrolabe wrote:... the Café again

neufer wrote:

Sputnick wrote:http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap081115.html
If these Galaxies are enveloped in Dark Matter - the envelopes will be interacting .. possibly exchanging energies - are these exchanges being searched for?

. "No matter how much you push the envelope, it's still stationery."

After due consideration I find Sputnick's question to be deeply thought provoking.

I would think that spherically symmetrical [density ~ A/(B + C * r^2)] envelopes of galactic dark matter would indeed be the first things to interact with the primary result being that the smaller galaxy would drain off more dark matter from the large galaxy (than it would lose to it). Among other things, this would probably cause the smaller galaxy to rotate faster (which should be observable).

Still, the two major dynamic feature IMO would be:

1) very strong tidal forces on the smaller galaxy and
2) the free streaming of stars that approach the gravitationally neutral Lagrange point L1.

Sputnick wrote:http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap081115.html
If these Galaxies are enveloped in Dark Matter - the envelopes will be interacting .. possibly exchanging energies - are these exchanges being searched for?

Chris Peterson wrote:

BMAONE23 wrote:Presuming that the bright source @ 4:00 is a foreground star, are you refering to the arc just above that bright point?
If so, there is another in the diffraction spike of the red foreground star (near the smaller galaxy) and another in the very faint tidal trail at the 9:30 position about twice the distance from the center to the end of the apparent bright arm.

Every one of those faint, fuzzy, not quite star-like objects in the picture is a distant galaxy, unrelated to the foreground galaxies. I counted up to ten of them before I quit.

BMAONE23 wrote:Presuming that the bright source @ 4:00 is a foreground star, are you refering to the arc just above that bright point?
If so, there is another in the diffraction spike of the red foreground star (near the smaller galaxy) and another in the very faint tidal trail at the 9:30 position about twice the distance from the center to the end of the apparent bright arm.