How do we know this is NOT the dastardly aliens that have located us through METI (positive-SETI) testing out their new death-ray before turning it upon our feeble selves!

Run! We're all doomed I tell you - DOOMED!!

Lets just hope earth is too remote for an effective demonstration

fear not sir, the whole invasion fleet will be swallowed up by a dog anyway. Its the Star Goat we should be worried about!

cause the images we're seeing happened 1.4billion years ago, given that Chandra is about 1.3244e+18 LGs away.

Went and found the paper (http://arxiv.org/abs/0712.2669) And they labelled _their_ pretty picture. In case its not obvious, the galaxies are the two (violet) blobs in the lower left corner; the blue wisp is the jet, having passed through the second (companion) galaxy.

BTW the authors believe the two galaxies are merging,not just orbiting. (And the companion’s orbiting "clockwise", since you don't ask.) They tentatively suggest that the merger may have cause the supermassive black holes at the centre of each galaxy to become (AGN).

You’ve doomed us all!

If they are closing in and merging, what happens when the two black holes meet??

To quote 'Hicks' in Aliens.

"....Game over man, Game over...

So what you are saying is that we can relax because this happened long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away...

Yep, 1.4billion years ago, all the extra time to reach us with.

Imminent onslaught within 100 years I reckon.

If the galaxies are merging is this just a bit of rough and ready foreplay?

....'Dominent Galaxy Spanks Partner'

is a much more catchy heading this day and age.

Oh man! I've been reading El Reg for the past 8 years, and I finally get an article about my research on here, and there's no "Boffins discover ...." title!!!

"cause the images we're seeing happened 1.4billion years ago"

So the aliens have time travel as well? Oh lordy...

What, like building societies? I'm thinking Nationwide and Anglia, that became Nationwide Anglia for about 5 minutes and are now... Nationwide. Looks more like a hostile takeover to me :)

possibly, see what we're up to with our active SETI doohikie and jump back 1.4 billion years to test the weapon and let us see the effects....its elaborate but possible I guess if its a civilisation like The Culture…

CAT is sitting on a bench, LISTER on a table. RIMMER and KRYTEN stand

between them.

CAT: So, what is it?

KRYTEN: I've never seen one before -- no one has -- but I'm guessing it's

a white hole.

RIMMER: A _white_ hole?

KRYTEN: Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. A black hole

sucks time and matter out of the universe: a white hole returns it.

LISTER: So, that thing's spewing time back into the universe? (He dons

his fur-lined hat.)

KRYTEN: Precisely. That's why we're experiencing these curious time

phenomena on board.

CAT: So, what is it?

KRYTEN: I've never seen one before -- no one has -- but I'm guessing it's

a white hole.

RIMMER: A _white_ hole?

KRYTEN: Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. A black hole

sucks time and matter out of the universe: a white hole returns it.

LISTER: (Minus the hat.) So, that thing's spewing time back into the

universe? (He dons his fur-lined hat, again.)

KRYTEN: Precisely. That's why we're experiencing these curious time

phenomena on board.

LISTER: What time phenomena?

KRYTEN: Like just then, when time repeated itself.

CAT: So, what is it?

They all stare at him.

CAT: Only joking.

LISTER: (Suddenly upright, and minus his hat, again) Okay, so it's

decided then. We consult Holly.

CAT: Hey, wait a minute -- I missed the discussion!

RIMMER: (Suddenly on the bench, where the CAT used to be sitting) We all

did.

KRYTEN: (Suddenly on the table previously occupied by LISTER) Time is

occurring in random pockets. The laws of causality no longer apply.

An action no longer leads to a consequence.

CAT: (Back on the bench) So, what is it?

KRYTEN: I think we've experienced this period of time before, Sir.

CAT: Only joking.

KRYTEN: And that one. Since we're no longer affected by the laws of

causality, we can override these time jumps if we concentrate.

RIMMER: Look, the only way out of this is to consult Holly.

CAT: (Snaps fingers) I'll go with that.

KRYTEN: Gets my vote.

LISTER: Okay, so it's decided then. We consult Holly.

KRYTEN: Ah, I think we've just encountered the middle of this

conversation!

CAT: So, what is it?

LISTER: Ooh, someone punch him out.

Don't mind if its the Culture...been waiting for some "Glanding"

Brilliant.......... :D

I'm sure the residents of Naboo are enjoying the lightshow... until it is too late...

It was 'Hudson' that said "Game over, man. Game over!" in Aliens.

HE'S Hicks...

:)

Chandra is about 1.3244e+18 LGs away.

What is that in double decker busses?

No one would have believed, in the last years of the nineteenth century, that human affairs were being watched from the timeless worlds of space. No one could have dreamed that we were being scrutinized as someone with a microscope studies creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. Few men even considered the possibility of life on other planets. And yet, across the gulf of space, minds immeasurably superior to ours regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely, they drew their plans against us...

anyone else worried by the 'coincidence' that we not only get the Talkie the Toaster story today, but all this one which is blatantly Lister pulling off the most flukey of all fluke shots (""They used to call me Cinzano Bianco Lister - once you got me on a pool table, you couldn't get me off!")

EE "Doc" Smith its gotta be

Ahh sir, you are obviously not a patron of the classics. But the Doc does get the "Best Space Opera" award .....

Seem to be getting my coat a lot these days - so much for global warming.....:)

Actually, I think you'll find it's grit on the scannerscope.

after decades of propaganda and hype, an Alien Gore convinced his world to abandon all technology to "save" their planet. After finally establishing equilibrium as millions died from disease, starvation, civil strife and exposure to the elements, their society finally emerged from it's Dark Age and began to prosper and grow anew.

Then the planet really started to heat up with the application of lots of nasty intergalactic radiation. Since they'd shut down "unnecessary" carbon-footprint-causing technology like telescopes, they had no warning. When their atmosphere began to fluoresce, they looked at their "forbidden" histories and despaired their lack of industrial infrastructure, to build the ships that might have allowed some life to survive. Cursing their own shortsightedness, life died under the searing steam tornadoes and later, to the ravages of interstellar cosmic radiation.

Cosmic events like the article describes tends to show just now little humans are worth in the Big Picture. Human will, human hubris, does *not* control the Universe. Our best efforts at changing even this tiny planet would last barely longer than the entire existence of the species-which is but a blink in just this world's lifetime. All the Kumbaya-singing and "carbon neutrality" nonsense is nothing more than a teddy bear to cuddle in the darkness-a replacement religion for those who are too self-absorbed to deal with established moral codes.

How can you get two masters confused. The quoted text is definitly HG Wells 'War of the Worlds'. E.E. 'Doc' Smith was Lensman and Skylark. Of the two, these galaxies colliding sounds most like Lensman. Anybody seen an Arisian or an Eddorean around yet?

(Fetches copy of Triplanetary, turns to page 7 [why don't books start on page 1]) and quotes:

"Two thousand million or so years ago two galaxies were colliding or, rather, were passing through each other. A couple of millions of years either way do not matter, since at least that much time was required for the inter-passage."

Interestingly, the copyright date in my copy (Granada, 1976 - Chris Foss cover) is 1948 when almost all astronomy was optical. Even got the time span within the right magnatude. Amazing man, and he was not even an astronomer. His doctorate (yes, he was really a doctor) was in chemistry.

Galaxies in close proximity always somehow seem to be merging... Neolithic bodies dug up from bogs always somehow seem to have been the victims of ritual sacrifice or foul play... Every year sees new climate records broken...

When HMG recently curtailed science research budgets you don't suppose they decided they'd had enough of these sorts of miserabilist outcomes?

Memo to Boffins: you really gotta give us good news.

It's funny when scientists say things like "This jet could be causing all sorts of problems for the smaller galaxy it is pummelling."

3C321 is 1.4 billion light years away, which means this jet pummeled this other galaxy a LONG time ago...

So you're saying they've had 1.4 billion years to

a) work out how to detect our radio transmissions broadcast merely a century ago

b) work out how to cross 1.4 billion light years really fast

c) come up with something even more devastating than their Black Hole Death Ray

Cheers, I won't be getting any sleep for a while...

<Puts on pedantic hat>

The star system is called 3C321

Chandra is a space borne x-ray Telescope ran by ESA & NASA. It is not 1.3244e+18 LGs away, the star system is!

</Puts on pedantic hat>

Phwoar.

Hi all, I'm the lead author on this result, and just wanted to say 1) thanks for the comments (!), and that 2) that I'm really amazed by the huge publicity that this has created. It's been a real whirlwind and a huge surprise to see how many comments this has attracted all over the web! Cheers, Dan.

Wow!

Time to ban smoking in public.

Samson not AC

Now look, this is just a storey of boy meets girl. Boy galaxy sees girl galaxy gets a bit closer and circles a bit then says "How about it". Girl galaxy gives him a bif, to put him of or encourage, you know the ususal stuff. They continue to circle like Strictly Ballroom.....

If they were coming together 1.4billion years ago, I wonder if they have made it yet?

Samson not AC

Judging by the 'stream', I'd say they made it alright, expect a big gold planet hanging of either side of the female galaxy and a few new planets popping up. Meanwhile the boy galaxy is buggering off to hurl asteroids at another galaxy thats looking at him funny.

The filly from NZilly who was so worried about the worms happiness must be dispatched immediately to the smaller galaxy. It may be upset at what is happening to its...never mind.

LGs' are a Reg Unit of distance! (Boiled of coruse)