Colliding Galaxies (IMAGE)
Caption
The gaseous disks of two galaxies collide in this series of images produced in a supercomputer simulation. Approximately three billion years after the collision begins, the two supermassive black holes at the center of the galaxies merge. Such mergers produce strong gravitational waves, which scientists hope to detect with the proposed Laser Interferometer Space Antenna. An international team of scientists led by Stelios Kazantzidis of the Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics performed the simulations to elucidate the processes that lead to the merger of supermassive black holes and the production of gravitational waves.
Credit
Image courtesy of Stelios Kazantzidis
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