Uploaded May 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
This video zooms into a galactic merging event in deep space, like a ‘cosmic joust’. One of these galaxies is piercing the other with intense radiation, emitted by a quasar at its core. This radiation is disrupting the gas and dust inside the other galaxy, dampening its ability to form stars.
Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers resolved these two galaxies despite how close they are to each other in the sky. Using the X-shooter instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), they examined how radiation affected the material inside the galaxy being bombarded by a quasar.
The various images shown here were blended together to create this zoom. They come from different telescopes, observing at different times, ending with a close-up of the galaxies as seen by ALMA. At the very end we see an artist’s illustration depicting how the beam of radiation affects the companion galaxy.
This video zooms into a galactic merging event in deep space, like a ‘cosmic joust’. One of these galaxies is piercing the other with intense radiation, emitted by a quasar at its core. This radiation is disrupting the gas and dust inside the other galaxy, dampening its ability to form stars.
Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers resolved these two galaxies despite how close they are to each other in the sky. Using the X-shooter instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), they examined how radiation affected the material inside the galaxy being bombarded by a quasar.
The various images shown here were blended together to create this zoom. They come from different telescopes, observing at different times, ending with a close-up of the galaxies as seen by ALMA. At the very end we see an artist’s illustration depicting how the beam of radiation affects the companion galaxy.
