Unveiling the Mystery: The Rarity of Spiral Galaxies in the Universe

Astronomers have discovered why spiral galaxies like the Milky Way are rare in our cosmic neighborhood. Supercomputer simulations revealed that frequent galactic collisions in the Supergalactic Plane, a billion light-year-wide sheet where large galaxy clusters are located, transformed spiral galaxies into elliptical galaxies. These collisions shattered the delicate spiral arms and pushed more matter into the supermassive black holes at their centers, making them even bigger. Spiral galaxies located away from the plane, however, were mostly spared from these collisions, allowing them to preserve their structures.