Two Bright Quasars Found Merging in Early Universe

Astronomers found two bright quasars in galaxies merging when the universe was less than a billion years old. This helps understand early galaxy growth.

Spectaculaire nouvelle photo spatiale : rencontre de galaxies

Créée à partir des données du télescope spatial James Webb et de l’Observatoire Chandra de rayons X de la NASA, l’image offre aux scientifiques une rare vue de face de la dynamique d’interaction et de fusion des galaxies.

Apocalypse When? No Certainty of a Milky Way -- Andromeda Collision

It is commonly believed that our own Milky Way is on a collision course with the neighbouring Andromeda galaxy. As a result of their merger, predicted in around five billion years, the two large spiral galaxies that define the present Local Group would form a new elliptical galaxy. Here we consider the latest and most accurate observations by the Gaia and Hubble space telescopes, along with recent consensus mass estimates to derive possible future scenarios and identify the major sources of uncertainty in the evolution of the Local Group over the next 10 billion years. We find that the next most massive Local Group member galaxies -- namely, M33 and the Large Magellanic Cloud -- distinctly and radically affect the Milky Way - Andromeda orbit. While including M33 increases the merger probability, the orbit of the Large Magellanic Cloud runs perpendicular to the Milky Way - Andromeda orbit and makes their merger less likely. In the full system, we find that uncertainties in the present positions, motions, and masses of all galaxies leave room for drastically different outcomes, and a probability of close to 50% that there is no Milky Way - Andromeda merger during the next 10 billion years.

Black hole is soaring between galaxies, leaving stars in its wake

A galaxy merger may have set a supermassive black hole free.

A dual quasar shines light on two supermassive black holes on a collision course inside a galaxy merger

Astronomers have made a rare discovery in the early universe involving two actively feeding supermassive black holes—or quasars—just 10,000 light-years apart from each other, that are on the verge of a colossal collision.

ARP Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies