Exploring the World of Galaxies

Abstract

In this book, we are going to explore the world of the galaxies and, in particular, study their interactions. For most people this is a very unfamiliar world. I mentioned in the Preface that galaxies have a ghostly or ephemeral appearance in small telescopes. Their appearance in our culture is also somewhat insubstantial. Most of us learned in school that the faint fuzzy band of light that can be seen stretching across the sky on summer evenings is a manifestation of the millions of distant stars contained within our own Milky Way galaxy. Some of us are old enough to remember cars or televisions with names like “Galaxie” or “Quasar.” (As far as I know, no company has yet named their product “super-massive black hole,” though I have known some that might be appropriately described that way.) A perusal of the astronomy coffee table books at the local bookstore will reveal many beautiful space telescope images of galaxies and galaxy collisions, including some that I have had the pleasure to work with. Similar images abound in science fiction movies and TV shows.