An enormous black hole is found at the center of most of the universe. These monsters are so large that they can be classified as supermassive black holes, with millions of times the mass of the sun. Super massive black holes get closer and closer to each other when two galaxies collide.
This almost incomprehensible process is on display in an image recently shared by the European Southern Observatory. Two super massive black holes are set to collide within a few hundred million years, creating a bigger black hole in the process.
The Very Large Telescope is a ground-based telescope that is made up of four individual telescopes, each of which has a primary mirror. The FOcal Reducer and low dispersion Spectrograph 2 or FORS2 is an instrument that is capable of taking spectrometry data from multiple targets at the same time.
The FORS2 images show how the stars, dust, and gas around the edges of the galaxy are stretched out into space, creating tails that reach out from the main body.
The image shows a preview of what could happen when our home galaxy, the Milky Way, is merged with the nearby AndromedaGalaxy. Our home galaxy, which also has a black hole at its center, is on a path to merge with our nearest large neighbor, the AndromedaGalaxy, billions of years from now. This image could be giving us a glimpse into the future if the resulting galaxy looks like the one we see in the picture.
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