When Galaxies Collide: How The First Super-Massive Black Holes Were Born (3 of 3) (IMAGE)

Ohio State University

When Galaxies Collide: How The First Super-Massive Black Holes Were Born (3 of 3)

Caption

In the image, the panel illustrates the complexity of dynamical evolution in a typical collision between two equal-mass disk galaxies. The simulation follows dark matter, stars, gas, and supermassive black holes, but only the gas component is visualized. Brighter colors indicate regions of higher gas density and the time corresponding to each snapshot is given by the labels. The first 10 panel images measure 100 kpc on a side, roughly five times the diameter of the visible part of the Milky Way galaxy. The next five panels represent successive zooms on the central region. The final frame shows the inner 300 pc of the nuclear region at the end of the simulation.

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Ohio State University

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