Tag: Galaxies

World’s largest visible light telescope spies a galaxy cluster warping spacetime

NeRD

When astronomers look at galaxies, they’re often conducting a sort of archaeology. Well, cosmic archeology.  Basically, by examining what a galaxy looks like and how it interacts with its nearest galactic neighbors, it’s possible to reconstruct that galaxy’s history. And one tool that astronomers can use for such work is the VLT Survey Telescope (VST), the world’s largest visible-light telescope. Now, the VST has released a triptych of images depicting some of those distant galaxies necessary in uncovering galactic pasts. One image depicts ESO 510-G13, a galaxy 150 million light-years…

Read More

Hubble Hunts Visible Light Sources of X-Rays

NeRD

2 min read Hubble Hunts Visible Light Sources of X-Rays This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the dwarf galaxy IC 776. ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Sun This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the dwarf galaxy IC 776. This swirling collection of new and old stars is located in the constellation Virgo, in the Virgo galaxy cluster, 100 million light-years from Earth. Although IC 776 is a dwarf galaxy, it’s also classified as a SAB-type or ‘weakly barred’ spiral. This highly detailed Hubble view demonstrates that complexity. IC 776…

Read More

Hubble Spots a Magnificent Barred Galaxy

NeRD

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope images showcases the galaxy NGC 2217. ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Dalcanton; Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt (Geckzilla) The magnificent central bar of NGC 2217 (also known as AM 0619-271) shines bright in the constellation of Canis Major (The Greater Dog), in this image taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Roughly 65 million light-years from Earth, this barred spiral galaxy is a similar size to our Milky Way at 100,000 light-years across. Many stars are concentrated in its central region forming the luminous bar, surrounded by a set of tightly wound spiral arms.…

Read More

Buried in the Cat’s Paw Nebula lies one of the largest space molecules ever seen

NeRD

Scientists have discovered a hitherto unknown space molecule while investigating a relatively nearby region of intense star birth, a cosmic spot about 5,550 light-years away. It’s part of the Cat’s Paw Nebula, also known as NGC 6334. The team, led by Zachary Fried, a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), examined a section of the nebula known as NGC 6334I with the  Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). This revealed the presence of a complex molecule known as 2-methoxyethanol, which had never been seen before in the natural world, though…

Read More

Cosmic fountain is polluting intergalactic space with 50 million suns’ worth of material

NeRD

Tremendous explosions in a galaxy close to the Milky Way are pouring material equivalent to around 50 million suns into its surroundings. Astronomers mapped this galactic pollution event in high resolution, obtaining important hints about how the space between galaxies becomes filled with chemical elements that eventually become the building blocks of new stars. The findings came about when the international team studied NGC 4383, a spiral galaxy in the Coma Berenices constellation, using a Very Large Telescope (VLT) instrument called the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE).  Located around 62…

Read More

Hubble Captures a Bright Galactic and Stellar Duo

NeRD

2 min read Hubble Captures a Bright Galactic and Stellar Duo This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope features the barred spiral galaxy NGC 3783. ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. C. Bentz, D. J. V. Rosario  This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope features NGC 3783, a bright barred spiral galaxy about 130 million light-years from Earth that also lends its name to the eponymous NGC 3783 galaxy group. Like galaxy clusters, galaxy groups are aggregates of gravitationally bound galaxies. Galaxy groups, however, are less massive and contain fewer members than galaxy…

Read More

Exotic ‘Einstein ring’ suggests that mysterious dark matter interacts with itself

NeRD

A fresh analysis of a remarkably massive yet compact galaxy from the early universe suggests that dark matter interacts with itself. The galaxy, JWST-ER1, which formed just 3.4 billion years after the Big Bang, was first spotted last October in images snapped by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). At over 17 billion light-years from Earth, JWST-ER1g is the farthest-ever example of a perfect “Einstein ring” — an unbroken circle of light around the galaxy, a result of light rays from a distant, unseen galaxy being bent due to the…

Read More

Hubble Spots a Galaxy Hidden in a Dark Cloud

NeRD

2 min read Hubble Spots a Galaxy Hidden in a Dark Cloud This Hubble image features the spiral galaxy IC 4633. ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Dalcanton, Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA; Acknowledgement: L. Shatz The subject of this image taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is the spiral galaxy IC 4633, located 100 million light-years away from us in the constellation Apus. IC 4633 is a galaxy rich in star-forming activity and also hosts an active galactic nucleus at its core. From our point of view, the galaxy is tilted mostly…

Read More

Hubble Peers at Pair of Closely Interacting Galaxies

NeRD

2 min read Hubble Peers at Pair of Closely Interacting Galaxies This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features Arp 72. ESA/Hubble & NASA, L. Galbany, J. Dalcanton, Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope features Arp 72, a very selective galaxy group that only includes two galaxies interacting due to gravity: NGC 5996 (the large spiral galaxy) and NGC 5994 (its smaller companion, in the lower left of the image). Both galaxies lie approximately 160 million light-years from Earth, and their cores are separated from each…

Read More

Hubble Views a Galaxy Under Pressure

NeRD

2 min read Hubble Views a Galaxy Under Pressure This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows dwarf galaxy, LEDA 42160. ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Sun This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows LEDA 42160, a galaxy about 52 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo. The dwarf galaxy is one of many forcing its way through the comparatively dense gas in the massive Virgo cluster of galaxies. The pressure exerted by this intergalactic gas, known as ram pressure, has dramatic effects on star formation in LEDA 42160. The gas…

Read More