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When to use Galaxy Tidal Tails 3D Explorer
Use this explorer when you want to see how galaxy encounters make tails, and skip it when you want a free-form gravity sandbox or a single galaxy.
- Classroom demos of tidal tails and interacting galaxies
- Showing why prograde, comparable-mass passages make the longest tails
- Previewing the future Milky Way and Andromeda merger
This is an educational visualization - a simplified restricted N-body with no gas or dark halo, scaled for clarity.
Galaxy tidal tails key figures
| Quantity | Value |
|---|---|
| Tidal tail length | 10 to 20 kpc (some over 100 kpc) |
| Milky Way + Andromeda merger | in about 4-5 billion years |
| Discovery model | Toomre and Toomre (1972) |
Walk the controls in the step-by-step guide, or compare options in vs alternatives. Open the Galaxy Tidal Tails 3D Explorer.
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