What structural characteristic is destroyed during a spiral galaxy merger?
Answer
The delicate, ordered rotation of progenitor disks
When spiral galaxies undergo a major merger event, the violent gravitational interaction associated with the collision completely disrupts the delicate and organized rotational structure that characterized the progenitor disks. This loss of organization is crucial because this ordered rotation is necessary to maintain the thin disk structure where density waves propagate and gradually compress gas into star-forming regions. Once this structure is destroyed, the resulting elliptical galaxy is left with a more random, ellipsoidal shape, which militates against the conditions needed for sustained, gradual star formation.
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