• Question: What was the most terrific object that you have discovered in space.

    Asked by timpro141 to Heather, Helen, Hugh, Jane, Julian on 13 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Julian Onions

      Julian Onions answered on 13 Nov 2014:

      I haven’t discovered any objects in space. However I think there are a few terrifying objects that have been discovered.
      There is a super massive black hole at the centre of our galaxy which will consume anything that gets too close.
      However they are nothing compared to “active” black holes in other galaxies which put out enormous amounts of energy.
      Take a look at this picture

      that is a galaxy, probably bigger than our own, throwing out high energy jets – and has been for years. You wouldn’t want to live near one of those!

    • Photo: Helen Johnson

      Helen Johnson answered on 13 Nov 2014:

      Hi Tim, I think the most ‘terrific’ things are often the most extreme, like Julian I find these active black holes at the centre of galaxies fascinating (AGN – active galactic nuclei) 😀
      Galaxy ‘mergers’ are exciting too – when two galaxies come together and interact under gravity. They result in some amazing structures, like this – http://tinyurl.com/n9j5f9a . Galaxies are actually mostly empty space, the stars are quite spread out, so they don’t really ‘collide’ as such. What happens instead is gas and stars are flung out into these strange patterns and the galaxies ‘dance’ around each other before eventually becoming one, new galaxy. The Milky Way will eventually merge with the galaxy Andromeda.

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