Stellar Streams in the Local Universe
Stellar Streams in the Local Universe
Image Credit:
Explanation:
The twenty galaxies
arrayed in these panels are part of
an ambitious astronomical survey of tidal stellar streams.
Each panel presents a composite view;
a deep, inverted image taken from publicly
available imaging surveys
of a field that surrounds a
nearby massive galaxy image.
The inverted images reveal faint cosmic structures,
star streams hundreds of thousands of light-years across,
that result from the gravitational disruption and
eventual merger of satellite galaxies
in the
local universe.
Such surveys of mergers and gravitational tidal interactions
between massive galaxies and their dwarf satellites are
crucial guides for
current models of galaxy formation and cosmology.
Of course, the detection of stellar streams in the
neighboring Andromeda Galaxy and
our own Milky Way
also offers spectacular evidence for ongoing satellite
galaxy disruption within our more
local galaxy group.
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