Interacting galaxies as a research area focuses on the dynamical, hydrodynamical, and radiative processes that occur when galaxies experience mutual gravitational influence, including fly-bys, minor and major mergers, and tidal encounters. Studies combine N-body and hydrodynamical simulations with multiwavelength observations to investigate tidal tails, bridges, bars, and induced starbursts, as well as gas inflows, feedback, and morphological transformation. This field is central to understanding hierarchical structure formation, the build-up of stellar mass, triggering and regulation of active galactic nuclei, and environmental effects on galaxy evolution across cosmic time, often using statistically defined samples from large surveys alongside detailed case studies.
An undergraduate astrophysics student at UC Berkeley has found three unusual galaxies—cataloged as Shapiro Dwarf Galaxies I, II and III. Each galaxy is far from other galaxies and has stopped making stars, a combination that ...
Astronomy
Oct 7, 2026
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Galaxies are like snowflakes: No two are exactly alike, even the spirals. The Hubble Space Telescope took a close look at the distant spiral NGC 4698 and found intriguing hints about its past. For one thing, this member of ...
Astronomy
Sep 29, 2026
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Astronomers have discovered a faint population of young stars extending far beyond the known edge of the nearby spiral galaxy Messier 74. The finding suggests the galaxy is nearly twice as large as previously measured. The ...
If you want to understand the origins of black holes, Yale astronomers say, you need to look beyond the centers of galaxies and start searching in the nooks and crannies. That's where you'll find the "wanderers"—black holes ...
Astronomy
Sep 23, 2026
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Star formation in galaxies is closely linked to molecular gas. In the distant past, when galaxy interactions were more common, these encounters compressed molecular gas, causing dense clouds to collapse under their own gravity ...
Astronomy
Sep 4, 2026
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Nā ʻUhane Māhoe Huki Pū i ke Ola is the Hawaiian name given to NGC 7253—a pair of spiral galaxies caught in each other's gravity. Captured by the Gemini North telescope on Maunakea in Hawai'i, the image created a spectacular ...
Astronomy
Sep 2, 2026
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In dark skies at night, distant starlight twinkles and speaks to vast cosmic histories almost as old as time itself. New data from instruments such as NASA's James Webb Space Telescope are helping astrophysicists probe deep ...
Astronomy
Aug 27, 2026
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Galaxies are like cosmic gems, each with characteristics including size and shape that make them distinct. A new gallery released today from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes displays a collection of galactic ...
Astronomy
Aug 25, 2026
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Our home galaxy, the Milky Way, grew to its current size in part by consuming smaller galaxies. Now, new data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope show definitive evidence of a dwarf galaxy merging with the young Milky Way ...
Astronomy
Aug 17, 2026
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Astronomers have discovered the first confirmed dual active galactic nucleus in a Green Pea galaxy, revealing two supermassive black holes growing at the same time inside a compact, intensely star-forming system. X-ray observations ...
