Of course, once exploding individual stars begins to lose it lustre - you can always try throwing galaxies against each other...

http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr162/lect/galaxies/colliding.html

Is this bigger than the one seen 400 years ago?

And what is the significance of the fact that the latter one escaped becoming a black hole? Why did that happen? What is its future going to be? [puzzled]

The post I submitted just above was about the recent supernova (back on page two)

The colliding galaxy pictures are neat. It took a long time for the site to load into my computer but it was worth the minute! I think I gave up the first time I tried several days ago thinking something must be wrong with the site. Oh for a cable connection!

The cartwheel galaxy is amazing.

Our Milkyway galaxy will collide with the Andromeda galaxy - that will be awesome!!!!

Some impacts are just the right size for us to appreciate them...

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2006/09/12/newzealand-meteor.html

http://www.mojoflix.com/Video/Meteor-Spotted.html

It is quite a rare event to see a meteor-event like the video, I assume. Some, no doubt, would claim to have seen a UFO.

Then again, some are even more visible...

http://digg.com/space/Spectacular_Meteor_Caught_on_Video_during_Football_Game

Of course, the moon gets its share of knocks...

The flash is the impact - remember, the moon has no atmosphere to cause the meteorite to start burning up before impact

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/13jun_lunarsporadic.htm

Weird science question: why does the moon not have an atmosphere?

/Bevin

Because it is dead?

Too little gravity to hang on to the air molecules, I believe. If I'm not mistaken it does have kind of a micro-atmosphere. Yeah, here's something on it: http://www.iac.es/galeria/mrk/atmo_lun.html

Right - planetary atmospheres apparently are a balance between inputs and outputs

inputs:
material in the planet turning to gas
impacting comets etc carrying water which then turns to gas
solar wind and other molecules being captured

outputs:
the gas turning into planetary solids
the gas escaping back into space

Around bodies the size of our moon and smaller, the inputs are lower and the outputs are higher (easier to escape)

/Bevin