Recent inter-galactic discoveries that will blow your mind!
After the Big Bang, the Universe was composed of radiation and subatomic particles. NASA's Hubble observed a tiny patch of sky (one-tenth the diameter of the moon) for one million seconds (11.6 days) and found approximately 10,000 galaxies, of all sizes, shapes, and colours.
Let's take a look:
Hubble telescope shares image of barred spiral galaxy NGC 4535
The Hubble Space Telescope has captured the image of NGC 613, a barred spiral galaxy, NASA said in a post.
The galaxy that was first found by German-English astronomer William Herschel in 1798 lies in the southern constellation of Sculptor and is 67 million light-years away.
"It is easily distinguishable as such because of its well-defined central bar and long arms, which spiral loosely around its nucleus," NASA said.
(Photograph:Others)
NASA captures 'magnetic fingerprint' of a galaxy across 24,000 light years
NASA captured the 'magnetic fingerprint' of a galaxy across 24,000 light-years.
The mesmerising image depicts magnetic fields in galaxy NGC 1068 or M77, streamlining over visible light and X-ray composite image of the galaxy from the Hubble Space Telescope, NuSTAR or the Nuclear Spectroscopic Array, and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey.
NGC 1068 appears to have a complex inner structure. This galaxy is basically analogous to NGC 4736 (M94) showing a strikingly similar overall morphology. The extended outer disk shows signs of interaction and misalignment, probably a result of a recent bombardment.
The magnetic fields aligned along the entire length of the massive spiral arms, 24,000 light-years across (0.8 kiloparsecs) implying that the gravitational forces that created the galaxy’s shape are also compressing its magnetic field.
This supports the leading theory of how the spiral arms are forced into their iconic shape known as “density wave theory.”
(Photograph:Twitter)
Representative image: NASA recently shared a mesmerising image of the "Fireworks Galaxy" | Courtesy: NASA
NASA recently shared a mesmerising image of the "Fireworks Galaxy". Officially known as the "NGC 6946", the galaxy has undergone 10 supernovae in just the last century, a characteristic on which its name is based.
For comparison, our galaxy - the Milky Way experiences one to two supernova every century. In the image, which was clicked by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, one can see the stars, the spiralling arms, and other celestial facets of the Fireworks Galaxy.
The galaxy is situated 25.2 million light-years away from Earth, and lies along the border of the constellations of Cepheus and Cygnus, which are situated in the north.
(Photograph:Others)
A handout picture released by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) on July 8, 2014 shows an artist's impression of dust forming in the environment around a supernova explosion. Very Large Telescope (VLT) observations have shown that these cosmic dust factories make their grains in a two-stage process, starting soon after the explosion, but continuing long afterwards. EUROPEAN SOUTHERN OBSERVATORY
A giant star which was under the observation of astronomers for over ten years has suddenly vanished. The star in question was located in a dwarf galaxy 75 million light-years away, and was one of the largest stars in the known universe.
The star, which was 2.5 times brighter than the Sun, left no trace behind.
(Photograph:AFP)
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NASA scientists discover a galaxy similar to Star Wars 'TIE Fighter'
NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has spotted a galaxy that resembled to TIE Fighter, a famous and fictional ship from Star Wars.
This galaxy is 500 million light-years away from Cassiopeia. The galaxy is called TXS 0128+554. It is an active galaxy that emits more life than all of the stars within the galaxy altogether.
(Photograph:Twitter)
A galaxy caught dying? Astronomers capture distant galaxy losing its ability to form stars
Astronomers at the European Southern Observatory captured a distant galaxy dying and losing its ability to form stars.
The spectacular event was triggered by the collision of another galaxy as per the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA).
Scientists were able to trace it due to the ejected gas called ''tidal tail'', which are elongated streams of stars and gas extending into interstellar space due to the merger of two galaxies.
The galaxy, known as ID2299 was formed when the Universe was just 4.5 million years old. It will shut down in a few tens of millions of years as it is ejecting 46 per cent of its total star-forming gas while new stars are being formed by other galaxies very rapidly.
(Photograph:Twitter)
Scientists discover the oldest, most distant galaxy till date
Astronomers have peered out into the vast expanse and discovered what they believe is the oldest, most distant galaxy till date.
Called GN-z11, the galaxy is 13.4 billion light-years or 134 nonillion kilometres away from us.
The galaxy has been discovered by an international team of astronomers led by Nobunari Kashikawa, a professor at the department of astronomy at the University of Tokyo.
MOSFIRE discovered that that GN-z11's levels of redshift indicate that it existed 400 million years after the Bang Bang.