Space remains a wild and violent frontier to this day that continues to leave mankind scratching their heads.

Scientists have discovered a huge ring of black holes in a far away galaxy, giving insight on what happens when two giants cosmos collide.

There are many fantastic places in space, but not many could compare to 300 million light miles away in a galaxy labeled AM 0644-741 or the Lindsay-Shapley Ring. It is classified as a ring galaxy because of its defining shape.

What it is Like When Galaxies Collide…

Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory reported by Space.com, astronomers detected a huge source of X-rays coming from a cluster of Neutron Stars or Black Holes with the Hubble Space Telescope. The black holes located in AM 0644 have celestial objects near by for the black holes to siphon off gas. As the black holes absorb gas, friction creates heat and bright X-rays that allow Chandra Observatory to view the spectacle. This is according to the statement given by the Chandra Observatory team.

The X-rays found in AM 0644 are categorized to be ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs). These celestial objects  produce X-rays that produce hundreds to thousand times more X-rays than most neutron star binaries.

The sheer size of galaxies along with all the empty space between their mass means, galaxies don’t often hit each other but the gravitational forces are still devastating. When they collide the force of gravity dragging them together creates a ring layer of expanding gas. The gas becomes dense over time allowing new stars to form.

“The most massive of these fledgling stars will lead short lives — in cosmic terms — of millions of years. After that, their nuclear fuel is spent, and the stars explode as supernovas, leaving behind either black holes with masses typically between about five to twenty times that of the sun, or neutron stars with a mass approximately equal to that of the sun.” Stated by a representative from Chandra.

Hubble observed more galaxies than just AM 0644. The telescope spotted six other galaxies, leading to finding 63 X-ray sources, 50 of them being ULX’s. The six other galaxies observed had a higher number of ULX’s than other types of galaxies. This could give more understanding to how ULX’s work in our universe stated by Chandra Observatory.