Simulations of galaxy collisions prove accurate… also amazing video

In September, I posted about Bolshoi, the most accurate computer simulation of the universe in the world. (Visualizations from Bolshoi were also seen in Bjork's Biophiliar performance.) Bolshoi's co-creator, UC Santa Cruz astrophysicist Joel Primack, has now emailed me this thrilling news confirming the accuracy of his computer simulations. Joel says:

By comparing Hubble Space Telescope observations to our simulations, we have for the first time accurately measured the rate at which galaxies merge with each other in the universe from nearby out to when it was about 1/3 of its present age. Such mergers play a crucial role in galaxy evolution.

"Astronomers Pin Down Galaxy Collision Rate" (NASA)

"Astronomers pin down galaxy collision rates by comparing Hubble Space Telescope photographs to supercomputer simulations" (UC-HIPACC)

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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http://homebiss.blogspot.com/ Saidul A Shaari

Stunning video! Loved it!
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_OAUXAA362EXWLYVMPJOKLFB5JQ Incipient Madness

Aren’t the the Milky Way and Andromeda scheduled to do this in just a few billion years. Earth should still be habitable even then as I believe the collision is due before our sun goes red giant. Too bad we won’t be around. I think the Milky Way and Andromeda are a little closer to the same size than the two galaxies in the vid.

I am not a transhumanist and I also think we will never get out of our solar system. We will be around no longer than a typical large mammal species survives. Y’all might find that depressing, but I’m pretty chill with it.

Doesn’t stop me from liking sci-fi.
- psychics
  
  I found the video quite amazing and enjoyed it very much. I also found your comments interesting and amusing. And no, don’t find your comments depressing .. just a fact
xenphilos

Looks like a fight between 2 of those wind-up tops if they were made of dust.
Inanna Kadesha

I want that as my screen saver
snuf42

Funny, I just spent last night modelling galactic collisions with the Universe Sandbox game (http://universesandbox.com/). They have a simulation of the Andromeda and Milky Way collision. Obviously not as pretty or accurate as this video, but still pretty decent.
BlueVelvetCrossing

All those stars just flung off into empty space scares me…
- Finnagain
  
  When you fling a star into deep space, does it get to keep its planets? rwtk
- Mantissa128
  
  That got me too. Imagine being on a planet around a star that’s flung out of your galaxy. If you couldn’t move, you’d never visit another star. Your science fiction would be pretty dull.
  
  Then there’s the supermassive black holes gulping down a few largish clumps of galaxy each – I wonder how many stars? And if you’re living anywhere near the core of either galaxy, forget it. Would be amazing to see the merger of those two black holes, though. Few other things in the universe could match nature on that scale.
  - snuf42
    
    If you were flung out far enough you’d have a pretty amazing view of the galaxy. I’ve read that the Milky Way viewed from the Lesser Magellenic Cloud would fill a huge portion of the sky, something like 70 full moon widths.
robuluz

Wins best video with worst music award for the entire decade.
http://profiles.google.com/bentobjects Terry Border

We on the U.S.S. Swiffer are doing our best to battle this space dust problem.
http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/5OQFBZ26C3VQ5ONGZGDBDY4BUU Mark A

Awesome. Now make it real and put it in a bottle.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_GB6LRM55ZGFN44RU5NH52236EI yahoo-GB6LRM55ZGFN44RU5NH52236EI

Love to see the bar forming at the center of the galaxy as the spin rate varies as you move out from the center.
Boris Kamenik

You’re gonna love this:
http://www.galaxydynamics.org/gravitas.html
Matthew Hall

Regarding the Milky Way/ Andromeda collision, my former group at NCSA did a nice visualization of a supercomputer simulation of a Milky Way-type galaxy colliding with an Andromeda-like galaxy a few years ago; it can be seen at:
http://youtu.be/lCblncsE8wQ
at about 2:40 (the whole video is pretty informative).

There are a whole slew of interesting universe, galaxy and solar system formation movies at http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/videos_science.html