Galaxy formation is the astronomical picture of the day

Have you ever wondered where the Earth, the Sun and even Earth came from? milky way? The process is shown in a video featured by NASA This Wednesday (31), on the site today’s picture. In just over two minutes, the video shows a simulation of the formation of a galaxy, which will include countless planets and stars.

Because the universe forms galaxies and planets too slowly for us to observe, computer simulations help reveal these processes. Such is the case of the video below, which shows a galaxy born in the primordial universe and its evolution up to the present day.

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At the start of the simulation, the gas is accumulating in a region where there is a high gravitational force. After that, a kind of cosmic dance takes place between the gas masses, which leads to the formation of a well-defined galactic center.

Meanwhile, more gaseous structures continue to follow the center – some even representing small satellite galaxies of the galaxy in the making. The end of the video, which represents the current era, shows them being eventually absorbed by the central galaxy.

Animation produced by illustris project, A great cosmic simulation of galaxy formation. The project was completed in 2013, and has resulted in high resolution images, full size, and great material fidelity.

How was the Milky Way formed?

As the animation showed, the Milky Way was born from the collapse of clouds of gas and dust, collected by gravity. The first stars emerged from these clouds and are now part of globular star clusters.

Although the evolutionary processes of our galaxy are still not fully understood, scientists already know that our galaxy has devoured others through collisions in the past. In a few billion years, the Milky Way will collide with the Andromeda Galaxy. It is likely that at the end of the process, they will form a A galaxy with a spiral structure and characteristics of elliptical galaxies.

source: APOD

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