A recent image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows a deep-eye view of a galactic needle.
The spiral galaxy It’s called the “eye of the needle,” though it’s officially known as NGC 247 and Caldwell 62. NASA She said May 10, the nickname is apt since this galaxy is a dwarf spiral, making it a relatively small group of stars compared to ours. Milky Way.
The Hubble Space Telescope The image depicts a crater on the other side of the galaxy, which NASA said has baffled astronomers. “There is a shortage of gas in that part of the galaxy, which means that there is not a lot of material from which new stars can form,” the agency wrote.
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“where star formation In this region, faint ancient stars fill the void. Scientists still don’t know how this strange feature formed, the agency added, but studies point to past gravitational interactions with another galaxy.
The wormhole isn’t the only mystery this galaxy holds.
Below the galactic disk, you can spit out a few smaller, distant galaxies past the Needle’s Eye mark of 11 million. light years, relatively close to us in terms of the galaxy. But getting to know those distant galaxies is something astronomers are trying to do, too.
“Bright red indicates regions of high density of gas and dust, and strong star formation near the edge of the galaxy,” NASA said. There is also a bright front star occurring in the field of view.
Integral to the galactic core is the ultra-bright X-ray source as well, but it’s unclear where that came from.
“Are they my star black holes Eating unusually large amounts of gas? Or are they long-awaited “medium-mass” black holes, which are tens of times larger than their stellar counterparts but smaller than black holes Monster black holes In the centers of most galaxies? “
Independent studies of the galaxy using other forms of light, such as X-rays with NASA Chandra X-ray Observatory, indicates that the X-rays come from the disk of a medium-mass black hole. But more studies will be needed to decide what is going on for sure.
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