Galaxy Cluster Collision Triggers A Million Light-Years Long Cosmic Shock Wave
Space is never up to any good! While the cosmos appear static and boring, that's far from the truth. Chemical processes and cosmic collisions are constantly stirring trouble in the universe.
A clash between two galaxy clusters triggered a giant shock wave that stretched 1.6 million light-years long, scientists have found.?The findings were revealed by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and claim that Abell 2146, a galaxy cluster situated 2.8 billion light-years away is now among the three cluster collisions in the universe to have created shock waves bright enough to be studied in detail, Space.com reported.
How was the collision studied?
Galaxy clusters contain a lot more matter than just galaxies, including dark matter, and an intra-cluster medium of gases. These extremely hot gases are visible in x-ray.
A team of astronomers from the University of Nottingham studied Abell 2146 for 23 days - offering us a detailed look into cosmic collisions. One of the galaxy clusters is "falling through" the other one. In this process, it generates two shock waves - a bow shock and an upstream shock.
Also read:?Most Detailed Survey Of Milky Way Galaxy Reveals Fascinating Details About Stars
Besides the length, astronomers also calculated?the width of these shock waves. The bow shock has a depth of 55,500 light-years while the upstream shock is about 35,000 light-years wide.
The study's findings will be published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomy Society, and a preprint may be read on arXiv.?With such observations, astronomers hope to better understand processes that form galaxies, the role of collisions, and the impact from such collisions.
Also read:?Giant Galaxy With 'Cosmic Shells' Captured By Hubble: What Created These Shells?
What do you think about this study? Let us know in the comments below.?For more in the world of?technology?and?science, keep reading?Indiatimes.com.
References
Cooper, K. (2022, June 13). Giant galaxy cluster collision triggers vast shock wave stretching over a million light-years long. Space.Com.?
