A New Galaxy: Merging with an LMC-Mass Dwarf

This is a different galaxy, one which has a merger near present-day with a dwarf galaxy companion. This shows a mock three-color image (u/g/r bands) of what this galaxy would look like in visible light wavelengths. Blue regions are young star clusters which have blown away the gas and dust out of which they formed. Red regions are obscured by large amounts of dust. The duration of the movie follows the last billion years of cosmic time, and while time is passing we have flown a camera “through” the resulting galaxy, panning around it as well, so you can see the structure inside the system. 

© Philip Hopkins 2015