What would happen if two galaxies collided together?

Question

Another question, when the Big Bang occured did our planet get thrown into space?(Do you capitilize big bang?)

Answer 1

When 2 galaxies collide (not if, it happens all the time), its not like 2 cars hitting each other. Since there is a lot of space between the stars in each galaxy, they slip through each other.
However, the gravitational forces will disrupt the stars in both galaxies - usually the larger (more massive) galaxy ends up shredding the smaller galaxy into streams of stars and gas.
Our Milky Way has absorbed over a dozen (possibly many more) galaxies - some of the more recent ones are still visible as streams of stars and star-forming regions in orbit around our galaxy (the Sagittarius Stream is one example).
The Whirlpool Galaxy is a more gentle example - both it and its companion (NGC 5195) are interacting and pulling out streams of stars from both.
This interaction in all colliding galaxies can cause shock waves in the clouds of dust and gas in both galaxies, resulting in a sudden increase in star formation.

Our planet wasn't born during the Big Bang (yes, its usually capitalized). The Big Bang was approximately 14 billion years ago, our solar system (and therefore Earth) are only about 4.8 billion years old. Our sun is theorized to be a third-generation star - the result of gas and dust that was enriched by heavier elements from 2 generations of supernovas.

Answer 2

1) It happens all the time in space. The galaxy's gravity messes them up - two spirals might merge and become an elliptical galaxy and cause a starburst (lots of new star formation). But stars don't collide; they are too far apart.

2) No. The big bang happened 13.7 billion years ago. Earth is only 4.5 billion years old. There were 9 billion years of cosmic chemical evolution in between. The big bang wasn't an explosion, it was an expansion - and it didn't just 'throw out stars and planets'.

Answer 3

It will happen and happens all the time. Galaxies will sometimes have their gases stripped after being collided and will no longer be able to form new stars, turning it into a red colored galaxy, as well and usually having the shape of a sphere. The stars will almost NEVER collide, however, because of the distance between each of them. Think about the distance from our sun to the closest star! The stars will be attracted to each other, while as well as the two super-dense black holes located in the heart of each galaxy. Because they are being pulled every which way, they become moved around and will mix and eventually get scattered into one of the two galaxies. The two new galaxies will pull away from each other and continue on their paths, the structure of each completely changed.

Answer 4

Just as an item of Interest, the Milky way is in the process of colliding with another galaxy right now.! A small one, called the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy. it has passed through our arm of the Milky Way and a trail of stars stripped from the galaxy is still passing through our neighbourhood. I forgot the website's address, but do a google search for Sagittarius Dwarf and you will find a few websites with info on this.

Adolph

Answer 5

1. A huge explosion would happen scattering gas and dust in all dirrections to be collected by other galaxies.
2. no when the big bang happened, gas and dust started to collect to make galaxies nebulae and stars and when the solar nebula was formed our sun was formed and dust and rock started piling up on each other. eventuall made earth. By the way this entire process took billions of years

Answer 6

That is suppose to happen to the Milkey Way and Andromeda galaxy in a couple billion years.

Answer 7

Check out
http://heritage.stsci.edu/2004/15/caption.html
or
http://heritage.stsci.edu/1999/41/caption.html
for a couple of good images. (Lots of other nice photos on that site as well ☺)

Doug

Answer 8

the big bang