Herschel Space Observatory Finds Galaxy Mega Merger
Posted on May 23, 2013
The Herschel Space Observatory has found a galaxy merger in space. The galaxies, collectively called HXMM01, are churning out the equivalent of 2,000 suns a year. Our Milky Way galaxy only hatches about two to three suns a year.
Herschel was used to spot the colliding galaxies, called HXMM01, located about 11 billion light-years from Earth, during a time when our universe was around 3 billion years old. Astronomers say these two galaxies will eventually merge and form one super-giant elliptical galaxy. The total number of stars in both colliding galaxies averages out to about 400 billion.
Hai Fu of the University of California at Irvine said in a statement, "We're looking at a younger phase in the life of these galaxies -- an adolescent burst of activity that won't last very long."