Tag: Galaxies

Hubble Studies a Sparkling Galaxy Pair

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1 min read Hubble Studies a Sparkling Galaxy Pair This new NASA Hubble Space Telescope image features a pair of interacting galaxies called, NGC 5410 and UGC 8932/PGC 49896. NASA/ESA/D. Bowen (Princeton University)/Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America) A pair of small, interacting galaxies shine in this new NASA Hubble Space Telescope image. The larger of the two galaxies is named NGC 5410 and was discovered in 1787 by British astronomer William Herschel. It spans 80,000 light-years across and has a bright white bar of stars at its center.…

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Hubble Glimpses a Bright Galaxy Group

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2 min read Hubble Glimpses a Bright Galaxy Group This new NASA Hubble Space Telescope image shows a tangled group of interacting galaxies called LEDA 60847. NASA/ESA/A. Barth (University of California – Irvine)/M. Koss (Eureka Scientific Inc.)/A. Robinson (Rochester Institute of Technology)/Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America) This new NASA Hubble Space Telescope image shows a group of interacting galaxies known as LEDA 60847. LEDA 60847 is classified as an active galactic nuclei, or AGN. An AGN has a supermassive black hole in the galaxy’s central region that is…

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Hubble Observes an Askew Galaxy Coaxing Star Formation from its Partner 

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2 min read Hubble Observes an Askew Galaxy Coaxing Star Formation from its Partner  This new NASA Hubble Space Telescope image features two interacting spiral galaxies collectively called Arp 300. NASA, ESA, J. Dalcanton (University of Washington), and R. Windhorst (Arizona State University); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America) Arp 300 consists of two interacting galaxies, UGC 05028 (the smaller face-on spiral galaxy) and UGC 05029 (the larger face-on spiral). Likely due to its gravitational dance with its larger partner, UGC 05028 has an asymmetric, irregular structure, which is…

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Hubble Views a Galactic Supernova Site

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2 min read Hubble Views a Galactic Supernova Site This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image is of the small galaxy known as UGC 5189A. ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Filippenko This image features a relatively small galaxy known as UGC 5189A, which is located about 150 million light-years away in the constellation Leo. This galaxy was observed by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to study a supernova explosion in 2010 known as SN 2010jl. This particular supernova is notable because it was an exceptionally luminous supernova event. In fact, over a period of three years,…

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Webb Shows Many Early Galaxies Looked Like Pool Noodles, Surfboards

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5 Min Read Webb Shows Many Early Galaxies Looked Like Pool Noodles, Surfboards Researchers are analyzing distant galaxies when the universe was only 600 million to 6 billion years old. Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, Steve Finkelstein (UT Austin), Micaela Bagley (UT Austin), Rebecca Larson (UT Austin) Researchers analyzing images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have found that galaxies in the early universe are often flat and elongated, like surfboards and pool noodles – and are rarely round, like volleyballs or frisbees. “Roughly 50 to 80% of the galaxies we…

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How do we know what the Milky Way looks like?

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Although our telescopes have captured some truly stunning images of the Milky Way, astronomers have only a vague understanding of our home galaxy. It took a lot of work even to get that sketch, and it’s amazing what we’ve been able to learn from our limited vantage point. Here on Earth’s surface, the Milky Way galaxy appears to the naked eye as a nebulous band across the sky. While astronomers and philosophers have debated the true nature and location of the Milky Way for ages, the great astronomer, physicist and…

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Surprise gamma-ray discovery could shed light on cosmic mystery

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Astronomers have discovered an unexpected and unexplained feature outside our Milky Way galaxy that’s radiating high-energy light called gamma rays. The team behind the discovery, including NASA and University of Maryland cosmologist Alexander Kashlinsky, found the gamma-ray signal while searching through 13 years of data from NASA’s Fermi Telescope.  “It is a completely serendipitous discovery,” Kashlinsky said in a statement. “We found a much stronger signal, and in a different part of the sky, than the one we were looking for.” What makes this gamma-ray signal even stranger is the…

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Astronomers accidentally discover ‘dark’ primordial galaxy with no visible stars

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Astronomers have accidentally discovered a dark galaxy filled with primordial gas untouched that appears to have no visible stars.  The researchers behind the discovery say this galaxy, designated J0613+52, could be “the faintest galaxy found to date.” Interestingly, scientists using the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) discovered the “dark” galaxy through a complete error.  “The GBT was accidentally pointed to the wrong coordinates and found this object. It’s a galaxy made only out of gas — it has no visible stars,” Green Bank Observatory senior scientist Karen O’Neil said in a…

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Hubble Finds Weird Home of Farthest Fast Radio Burst

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5 min read Hubble Finds Weird Home of Farthest Fast Radio Burst A NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of the host galaxy of an exceptionally powerful fast radio burst, FRB 20220610A. Hubble’s sensitivity and sharpness reveals a compact group of multiple galaxies that may be in the process of merging. They existed when the universe was only 5 billion years old. FRB 20220610A was first detected on June 10, 2022, by the Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope in Western Australia. The European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope…

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Ripples in the oldest known spiral galaxy may shed light on the origins of our Milky Way

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Observations have revealed the first-ever seismic waves seen in an ancient galaxy, possibly offering new insight into the origins of our very own Milky Way.  The galaxy, known as BRI 1335-0417, is more than 12 billion years old, making it the oldest and farthest known spiral galaxy in our universe. Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) radio telescope in Chile, researchers studied the motion of gas around the galaxy and, in turn, captured the formation of a seismic wave. Such phenomena has never been observed before in such an…

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