sheriffofnothingham wrote:i wish to elaborate on that issue. in my uneducated guess any life existing on either of the two merging galaxies would be elated about the increase in fireworks during and after the merge. since galactic matter consists primarily of dust and gas a merge of two or more galactic bodies would very likely be a peaceful event.
The bright areas represent large regions of new star formation, where hydrogen clouds have collided. You wouldn't want to be in those areas. Many high mass stars are created, which have very short lifetimes and end in violent supernovas, which result in a radiation environment not healthy for life around nearby stars. And the stellar density can be quite high in those regions, meaning that planetary systems can be disrupted and orbits changed. That's almost certainly fatal for any complex life on those planets.
intelligent beings populating such a planet probably would not be disturbed by an increase of celestial activity in their area. in fact, they would welcome it. a meteor storm or asteroid impact delivers precious minerals to the surface of a planet resulting in renewal of the elenents and replenishment of an atmosphere.
This kind of thing represents an extinction event. The sort of thing that more complex life forms tend to be eliminated by.
the earth and mars and venus are expected to benefit from an increase in meteoritic activity within the next few years, but not from a galactic merge. dust and rocky material sweeping across the galactic plane should probably enter the solar system at about this time.
No. This is not going to happen, and we would not benefit if it did.
NGC 6240: Merging Galaxies
