Showing posts with label astronomy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label astronomy. Show all posts

Monday, April 20, 2026

Cosmic collision. Turned the Magellanic Clouds into chaotic.



"The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is a nearby dwarf galaxy and one of the Milky Way’s closest companions. Rich in gas but relatively low in heavy elements, it provides astronomers with an important laboratory for studying how stars form and galaxies evolve. Credit: NASA, ESA, CXC, and the University of Potsdam, JPL-Caltech, and STSc." (ScitechDaily,A Cosmic Crash Turned This Nearby Galaxy Into Chaos)

“The Small Magellanic Cloud, or SMC, is one of the Milky Way’s nearest galactic neighbors. It is a small, gas-rich galaxy visible to the naked eye from the Southern Hemisphere, and it remains gravitationally linked to our galaxy along with its companion, the Large Magellanic Cloud, or LMC.” (ScitechDaily,A Cosmic Crash Turned This Nearby Galaxy Into Chaos)

“The SMC contains more mass in gas than in stars. Under normal conditions, gas cools and contracts due to gravity. It forms a rotating disk, similar to the process that created the flat, spinning structure of our solar system. However, earlier measurements using the Hubble Space Telescope and the European Space Agency’s Gaia satellite showed that the SMC’s stars are not moving in an orderly rotation around the galaxy’s center.”(ScitechDaily,A Cosmic Crash Turned This Nearby Galaxy Into Chaos)

“A study published in The Astrophysical Journal offers a possible answer. Researchers from the University of Arizona found that the SMC’s lack of stellar rotation likely stems from a direct collision with the LMC. This discovery also raises concerns about using the SMC as a model for understanding galaxy evolution over cosmic time.” (ScitechDaily,A Cosmic Crash Turned This Nearby Galaxy Into Chaos)

The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is a gas-rich dwarf galaxy located near the Milky Way. That galaxy is one of the closest galaxies around the Milky Way. That object is near another irregular dwarf galaxy: the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). The inconsistent form of those galaxies caused discussions. The reason for their interesting form was the collision between the SMC and LMC. 

This collision turned those galaxies. Into chaos. That chaos is interesting because that means those galaxies collided so close in the past that they had no time to reorder their structures. In the same way. When Andromeda hits the Milky Way. That causes chaos. When the Andromeda galaxy. Close.  Milky Way. First, it should travel past our galaxy. It starts to orbit the Milky Way following a spiral-shaped trajectory. 

That closing spiral trajectory causes the collision between the Andromeda Galaxy’s supermassive black hole. And the Sagittarius A, the supermassive black hole in the center of the Milky Way. That collision happens in the distant future. The calculated time to that collision is 4-5 billion years. So, when that happens, the Sun is turned into a white dwarf. 

“The Magellanic Clouds (Magellanic system or Nubeculae Magellani) are two irregular dwarf galaxies in the southern celestial hemisphere. Orbiting the Milky Way galaxy, these satellite galaxies are members of the Local Group. Because both show signs of a bar structure, they are often reclassified as Magellanic spiral galaxies.” (Wikipedia, Magellanic Clouds)

The two galaxies are the following:


“Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), about 163 kly (50 kpc) away.”


“Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), about 206 kly (63 kpc) away.”


(Wikipedia, Magellanic Clouds)





“The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC)”. (Wikipedia, Magellanic Clouds)





“Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC)”. (Wikipedia, Magellanic Clouds)






“The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds”. (Wikipedia, Magellanic Clouds)





"Illustration of the SMC-LMC collision. Credit: Himansh Rathore, University of Arizona" (ScitechDaily, A Cosmic Crash Turned This Nearby Galaxy Into Chaos)


Previously, astronomers believed that those galaxies. They were old ones. The gas-rich structure of the SMC caused suspicions about the age of those galaxies. And modern observations. Tell that the cosmic collision turned those galaxies into chaos. Normal spiral and elliptical galaxies form around the mass center. Those mass centers are normally supermassive black holes. 

That thing turns the galaxy into a spiral structure around that supermassive center. The lack of a mass center turns galaxies into inconsistent. Or chaotic forms. Another thing that can turn a galaxy. Into chaos is the cosmic collision. The question is how that chaos affects the star formation in the galaxy? In modern models, stellar formation requires whirls in the material re. Those whirls start to form the denser points in gas and dust. 

Those material packs start to accumulate material around them. Do those whirls form stars? It depends on how long the material accumulation can keep its form. If some cosmic event, like a supernova explosion, happens too close, that thing can destroy the proto-star before anybody even knows its existence. Also, chaotic form. And crossing material flows can destroy those proto-stars. 


https://scitechdaily.com/a-cosmic-crash-turned-this-nearby-galaxy-into-chaos/


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda%E2%80%93Milky_Way_collision


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magellanic_Clouds


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagittarius_A

Sunday, December 14, 2025

Uranus and Neptune might not be what they seem.



"Researchers have uncovered evidence that Uranus and Neptune could be far rockier on the inside than anyone expected. Their unusual magnetic fields and uncertain internal makeup show why new missions are needed to reveal what these planets are really like. Credit: Shutterstock" (ScitechDaily, New Findings Suggest Uranus and Neptune Are Not What They Seem)

“The Solar System is usually grouped into three main types of planets based on what they are made of: the four rocky terrestrial worlds (Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars), the two massive gas giants (Jupiter and Saturn), and the pair of ice giants (Uranus and Neptune). (ScitechDaily, New Findings Suggest Uranus and Neptune Are Not What They Seem)

“New research from a scientific team at the University of Zurich (UZH) suggests that Uranus and Neptune may not fit neatly into that final category. Their findings indicate that both planets could contain much more rock than previously assumed. The study does not argue that the two worlds must be water-rich or rock-rich; instead, it challenges the long-standing belief that an ice-heavy composition is the only viable explanation. This perspective is also supported by the discovery that the dwarf planet Pluto is primarily made of rock.”(ScitechDaily, New Findings Suggest Uranus and Neptune Are Not What They Seem)

New information suggests that Uranus and Neptune are rocky planets. This would be one of the most incredible findings in modern astronomy. The fact is that. Gravity doesn’t tell everything. About. The size of the planets.“Silicon is the eighth most common element in the universe by mass, but it very rarely occurs in its pure form in the Earth's crust. It is widely distributed throughout space in cosmic dust, planetoids, and planets in various forms of silicon dioxide (silica) or silicates. More than 90% of the Earth's crust is composed of silicate minerals, making silicon the second most abundant element in the Earth's crust (about 28% by mass), after oxygen.” (Wikipedia, Silicon). 

This means that if there is mainly silicon and lighter solid elements. Even. If the planet is large. 

It’s possible. It still has quite a weak gravity. Compared to its size. The massive rocky planets called “super earths” and “hot neptunes” are giving a tip that. Maybe there are misunderstandings about those two planets. The mass of Uranus is 14.536 times that of Earth, but that includes its massive atmosphere. The gravity on that planet’s surface is 0.886g. The mass of Neptune is 17.147 times that of Earth. Surface gravity of Neptune is 1.149g.  

As in the case of Uranus. Neptune's massive atmosphere. Raises that planet’s mass. So, are Uranus and Neptune gas planets? The gas giants are not always gas. They are probably quite small planets with a large atmosphere. But all of those planets have a point where solid layers begin. The gas giant formation begins. When. A quite small rocky point acts as the gravitational center. Then that gravitational center starts to collect gas and dust around it. 

The environment must be so stable that the solar wind doesn’t blow those gas and dust layers off, while the planet is forming. This means that planets like hot Jupiters. Or ultra-hot gas giants must form far from their suns.  The ultra-hot rocky planet can be closer to its star. And in some cases, those planets are made of melted iron. In cases like hot Jupiters, the massive gravity of those planets keeps them in form. If. Planet formation starts in interstellar space. That planet will turn. 

Into an extremely large. Interstellar traveller. This requires that the planet formation begins in an interstellar nebula, with no light elements. Those nebulae are supernova remnants and nova remnants. If. There are lots of heavy elements. Those elements cannot start fusion. There is another theoretical possibility. That the small star could turn into a planet. The idea is that the supernova near a small star or brown dwarf can push so much material away from that star that its fusion ends. 


https://scitechdaily.com/new-findings-suggest-uranus-and-neptune-are-not-what-they-seem/


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neptune


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranus


The model of Hawking radiation. And black hole evaporation.

  A quasar emits exceptional amounts of energy generated by matter falling into a supermassive black hole. Credit: NASA, ESA, and J. Olmsted...