Shockwave from Collision of Galaxies Reaches Earth

Astronomers have witnessed a collision of galaxies. Galaxy NGC 7318b crashed into four others at 3.2 million km/h, causing a powerful shock wave, similar to the sonic boom of a jet fighter, that reached Earth. Scientists reported this in a study published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

"This is a huge intergalactic debris field. The "new intruder," NGC 7318b, crashed into the debris field and compressed the plasma and gas. In doing so, it reactivated the plasma, causing it to glow brightly at radio frequencies. It likely triggered the star formation process," an astrophysicist from the University of Hertfordshire in the UK said in a commentary.

He called the event a rare chance for humanity to see a complex combination of colliding galaxies, which will, in turn, provide valuable information for understanding the formation of the galaxies we see today and may observe in the future.