Prepared by: Mohamed Ezzedine
British astronomers at Durham University or Durham University, Britain, using a supercomputer to simulate the evolution of other galaxies surrounding the Milky Way, discovered that collisions and mergers of spiral galaxies with each other form elliptical galaxies, and this is what makes the Milky Way a unique and special galaxy.
“Galaxies come in many shapes and sizes, and the Milky Way is a spiral galaxy because of the way stars, dust and gas emerge from the center of the galaxy, but spiral galaxies are surprisingly rare in our galactic surroundings,” said Carlos Frenk of the university’s Institute for Computational Cosmology and lead researcher on the study. “For years, astronomers have wondered why, since the 1960s.”
He added: “The simulation showed that galaxies in dense clusters of stars, such as our Milky Way galaxy, witnessed repeated collisions and mergers. When galaxies merge, a new type of galaxy is formed. When two spiral galaxies collide, what is called an elliptical galaxy is formed.”
He continued: “There are a lot of elliptical galaxies, and very few spiral galaxies, which indicates that our Milky Way galaxy somehow survived amid the chaotic scenario of galaxies over the years.”
