= Juri Toomre
{c}
<Juri Toomre> and <Alar Toomre> demonstrated how close gravitational encounters between <galaxies> can generate long bridges and tails. Their 1972 calculations represented each <galactic disk> by noninteracting test particles orbiting a central <mass>, then followed its response to another passing <galaxy>.
Despite this deliberately simplified model, <tidal forces> produced narrow extended structures resembling observed interacting systems. The paper reconstructed several particular pairs, connecting recognizable morphology to encounter geometry. It showed that dramatic luminous extensions can arise from ordinary <gravity> acting on pre-existing disk material.<Galactic Bridges and Tails by Alar Toomre and Juri Toomre>[p. 623, abstract; figures 19, 21–23, reconstructions of specific galaxy pairs]{ref}
\Image[https://www.colorado.edu/jila/sites/default/files/styles/large_image_style/public/2025-05/Juri_Toomre_2016_web.jpg?itok=9vexzt1m]
{title=Portrait of <Juri Toomre>}
{description=External portrait hosted by JILA, University of Colorado Boulder.}
{source=https://www.colorado.edu/jila/juri-toomre}
{width=250}
Back to article page
