This Huge Galaxy Has Tiny Galaxies Orbiting It, Like Planets Around a Star

A galaxy called Centaurus A has been harbouring a strange secret. Researchers have found a plane of dwarf galaxies orbiting it on a plane – much like planets do around stars, and even stars around galactic cores.

This is not only really cool – it also challenges a long-held theory that dwarf galaxies hang around larger galaxies in all directions, like bees in a hive.

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Tau.Neutrino said:

This Huge Galaxy Has Tiny Galaxies Orbiting It, Like Planets Around a Star

A galaxy called Centaurus A has been harbouring a strange secret. Researchers have found a plane of dwarf galaxies orbiting it on a plane – much like planets do around stars, and even stars around galactic cores.

This is not only really cool – it also challenges a long-held theory that dwarf galaxies hang around larger galaxies in all directions, like bees in a hive.

more…

Galaxies with orbiting dwarfs are extremely common. But not orbiting in a plane.

I can see three possible explanations.

• Perhaps it’s a random alignment. A small proportion of random orientations will be aligned and Centaurus A happens to be one of those.

• Or perhaps what we are seeing is the result of the break-up of a gas-rich galaxy that collided with Centaurus A. You know about the Magellanic streams, streams of stars formed by tidal effects of the Milky Way on the Magellanic clouds. If such a stream contained gas clouds that coalesced into multiple small galaxies then they would all orbit in the same plane.

• The third option is that Centaurus A is a very peculiar galaxy indeed. A strong radio and cosmic ray source, it is also a starburst galaxy and the largest galaxy in its cluster. Perhaps its peculiarity relates to the alignment.

mollwollfumble said:

I can see three possible explanations.

• Perhaps it’s a random alignment. A small proportion of random orientations will be aligned and Centaurus A happens to be one of those.

• Or perhaps what we are seeing is the result of the break-up of a gas-rich galaxy that collided with Centaurus A. You know about the Magellanic streams, streams of stars formed by tidal effects of the Milky Way on the Magellanic clouds. If such a stream contained gas clouds that coalesced into multiple small galaxies then they would all orbit in the same plane.

• The third option is that Centaurus A is a very peculiar galaxy indeed. A strong radio and cosmic ray source, it is also a starburst galaxy and the largest galaxy in its cluster. Perhaps its peculiarity relates to the alignment.
  

It’s going to keep astronomers and astro-physicists thinking for some time to come, isn’t it?

And to think, there’s zero chances of anyone/anything being alive in any of those galaxies (according to Creationists).

captain_spalding said:

mollwollfumble said:

I can see three possible explanations.

• Perhaps it’s a random alignment. A small proportion of random orientations will be aligned and Centaurus A happens to be one of those.

• Or perhaps what we are seeing is the result of the break-up of a gas-rich galaxy that collided with Centaurus A. You know about the Magellanic streams, streams of stars formed by tidal effects of the Milky Way on the Magellanic clouds. If such a stream contained gas clouds that coalesced into multiple small galaxies then they would all orbit in the same plane.

• The third option is that Centaurus A is a very peculiar galaxy indeed. A strong radio and cosmic ray source, it is also a starburst galaxy and the largest galaxy in its cluster. Perhaps its peculiarity relates to the alignment.
  

It’s going to keep astronomers and astro-physicists thinking for some time to come, isn’t it?

And to think, there’s zero chances of anyone/anything being alive in any of those galaxies (according to Creationists).

Creationists base their science on imagination.

Astronomers base their science on observation.

Tau.Neutrino said:

Creationists base their science on imagination.

Astronomers base their science on observation.

Astrophysicists are stuck half way between the two.

Creationists are like tachyons – a myth.

mollwollfumble said:

Creationists are like tachyons …

Well, they are, sort of.

They have a hypothesis about why they (themselves) exist. They just can’t explain very well the process that created them.