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| Science & Technology |
| Astronomers Record Powerful Sound Wave After Galaxy Collision |
| 2024-11-24 |
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. [Regnum] One of the most powerful shock waves recorded by astronomers in the entire history of observations has reached Earth. It was caused by a collision in a group of galaxies known as Stephan's Quintet, writes the British journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS). Galaxy NGC 7318b collided with four other galaxies in the group at 2 million mph (3.2 million km/h), creating a shock front similar to the "sonic boom of a fighter jet," Live Science notes. "The only thing worse would be a new Yoko Ono single dropping" According to Marina Arnaudova, an astrophysicist at the University of Hertfordshire in the UK, humanity has a rare chance to observe the complex process of galaxy collision. The "new intruder" NGC 7318b crashed into a huge intergalactic debris field, which led to the compression of plasma and gas. "In doing so, it reactivated the plasma, causing it to glow brightly at radio frequencies and likely triggered the process of star formation," Arnaudova said. Stephan's Quintet, discovered in 1877 by French astronomer Edouard Jean-Marie Stephan, is located 290 million light years from Earth. At the core of the group are galaxies NGC 7317, NGC 7318a, and NGC 7319, which are thought to have been impacted by an "old intruder" — galaxy NGC 7320c. During the collision, almost all of their interstellar medium was ejected into intergalactic space, and the "new intruder" 7318b is currently interacting with this region, the MNRAS report specifies. Scientists are confident that observations of the merger and interaction of galaxies will allow us to understand how they formed and evolved. As reported by Regnum News Agency, in the fall of 2022, the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST), known as the "China Sky Eye", discovered a huge structure of atomic gas while observing Stephan's Quintet. According to a study published in the journal Nature, the linear scale of the structure of atomic hydrogen reaches approximately two million light years, or 0.6 megaparsecs, which is the largest of its kind ever discovered in the Universe. |
| Posted by:badanov |
| #7 I just figured it was my upstairs neighbors again...slept right through it. |
| Posted by: DooDahMan 2024-11-24 14:32 |
| #6 I think that sound waves need a medium to propagate. Hence no sound in a vacuum. What is the medium for this? They proved the non-existence of "ether" long ago, right? Ain't the science settled? (see also #3) |
| Posted by: alanc 2024-11-24 09:36 |
| #5 I think that sound waves need a medium to propagate. Hence no sound in a vacuum. What is the medium for this? They proved the non-existence of "ether" long ago, right? Ain't the science settled? (see also #3) |
| Posted by: alanc 2024-11-24 09:36 |
| #4 Galaxies collide - Doc Smith? |
| Posted by: Grom the Reflective 2024-11-24 05:23 |
| #3 290 million light years from Earth, is about 1,703,630,854,080,000 miles in distance. (1.703 Quadrillion miles) Since light travels much faster than a Shock wave. Have we actually exp. what Astronomers saw yet? Also, wouldn't this 290+/- year old Shock Wave have spread out 90 to 180 degree cone and dissipated? WiKi (Researchgate.net) "Over longer distances, a shock wave can change from a nonlinear wave into a linear wave, degenerating into a conventional sound wave as it heats the air and loses energy. The sound wave is heard as the familiar "thud" or "thump" of a sonic boom, commonly created by the supersonic flight of aircraft." |
| Posted by: NN2N1 2024-11-24 04:59 |
| #2 I must have sleep through it and missed it! |
| Posted by: Seeking Cure For Ignorance 2024-11-24 03:25 |
| #1 One of the most powerful shock waves recorded by astronomers in the entire history of observations has reached Earth. Due to P.Trump's election. |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2024-11-24 00:14 |