"The third-most massive galaxy in the Local Group has lived a peaceful life so far. The spiral arms are loose and symmetrical, and its dust is evenly spread. But it is being gravitationally drawn to the far larger Andromeda Galaxy—which portends a violent future."
Though it has only 40 billion stars, a fraction of the Milky Way’s number, the Triangulum Galaxy is churning out newborns at an unusually fast pace. The Tarantula Nebula is a stellar nursery aglow with 200 superhot stars, some weighing 100 solar masses or more.
Generator Unlocked
Three-Body Problem
As it speeds toward mighty Andromeda, Triangulum seems doomed. But will it encounter the Milky Way first? Or will unexpected forces throw it off course? Computer models of the three galaxies can’t predict trajectories precisely over extreme lengths of time and space.
Star Factory
Achievements[]
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Description
Requires
Black Hole?
Do all galactic cores have supermassive black holes? Not necessarily. Galaxies like Triangulum without a central bulge of stars either have no black hole or, more likely, a small or intermediate one beyond the detection range of our telescopes.
Triangulum Galaxy Rank 3
Gassed Out?
Mergers refuel galaxies, injecting gas that ignites stars. But all galaxies will one day run dry and become infertile. In its last gasp, a dying galaxy breathes in expelled gas that has cooled and condensed nearby. And then that’s gone too.