New Supercomputer Simulation Shows How Galaxies Interact

12.5 Billion Years Of Galactic Evolution In 1 Minute

A new computer simulation from NASA's Ames Research Center shows what galaxy mergers might look like over billions of years.

You're seeing swirling gases, dust and rock as they move throughout a period of roughly 12.5 billion years.

The elements start to rotate around one another while immersed in an expansive disk of gases. Scientists are figuring out how gases change when one galaxy's gases bump into a neighbor's. One result is that cooler gases tend to warm during this interaction.

This particular simulation was developed by scientists as a series to help better understand galaxy growth, according to NASA.

Each frame in the simulation represents 5 million years and the simulations take more than a year to complete.

Weather systems often do a sort of cosmic dance, too. These dances take on the order of minutes to days rather than millions of years.

In hurricanes, this interaction is called a Fujiwhara interaction or the Fujiwhara effect.

Thunderstorm clusters do it, too. Supercells often split and merge during their life cycle, sometimes causing tornadoes to dissipate and reform.

It is unknown if these galaxy mergers cause astronomical tornadoes, though.