Astronomers just observed two galaxies merging, 13 billion years ago

[The AchieVer]

Astronomers just observed two galaxies merging, 13 billion years ago

It's thought to be the earliest known example of merging galaxies yet discovered.

 

ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, Hashimoto Et Al

Astronomy is especially good for one thing: making you feel like an insignificant, meaningless blip floating through the infinite void of space.

 

Take this recent development for example: astronomers recently observed two galaxies merging, but because of the distance between us and the observed event, we know this merger took place an incredible 13 billion years ago. 

 

Numbers like this are almost too big to comprehend.

 

B14-65666 was once thought to be a mere blob of stars, but new observations by a team of researchers from Tokyo's Waseda University have produced evidence that suggest B14-65666 is actually the end result of two galaxies merging.

 

The team led by Takuya Hashimoto used new data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to discover what is believed to be the earliest known example of two galaxies merging into one. The total mass of the entire object is apparently 770 million times the size of our sun.

 

Again, numbers almost too big to comprehend.

 

 

Source

[xpkRAKE]

It's almost inconceivable to imagine what's going on up there.