Hubble Telescope Discovers Possible Galactic Merger

picture Hubble Space Telescope He appears An irregular dwarf galaxy called NGC 5238.Which is 14.5 million light years away from us Landin the constellation Canes Venatici. Although it looks like a simple speck, it is full of stars It has a complex structure. Astronomers believe that this The galaxy had a close encounter another billion years ago, any Distorted shape.

complex structure It is the subject of a great deal of research today.As the image reveals, Hubble was able to distinguish countless stars in the galaxy, as well as their associated globular clusters: Bright spots in and around the galaxy, surrounded by more stars.

Astronomers explain that when two galaxies approach each other, they Gravity changes the distribution of stars.. NGC 5238 is most likely. absorbed a smaller galaxyResearchers are looking for evidence of this by observing its stars with the excellent Hubble resolution. The stars that formed in the consumed galaxy could be different from those in NGC 5238, and there could also be evidence of the existence of Pop music To form stars when fusion occurs.

Despite its small size and inconspicuous appearance, NGC 5238 helps astronomers understand How galaxies form and evolve. One of the main theories of galaxy evolution is that they formed “from the bottom up.” pyramid methodStar clusters and small galaxies were the first to form. Gas and dark matter.

With the passage of time, gravity And gradually he joined these small bodies together until they were formed. Galaxy clusters and superclustersWhich explains the shape of the largest structures seen in the present universe. The merger of an irregular dwarf galaxy like NGC 5238 with a smaller galaxy is just the kind of event that could have started the process. Galaxies in the Early Universe.

Observations of tiny NGC 5238 may help test some of our fundamental ideas about how the universe evolved.

This was achieved thanks to the noble and constant Hubble Space Telescope, Joint mission to a pot And the European Space Agency Which always amazes scientists with its beautiful observations of the vast universe and which celebrated 34 years of service on April 26, 2024.

Powerful Space Observatory It was launched On board shuttle Discovery on mission STS-31 On April 24, 1990, Planned to last 15 years, it has been extended to more than double its duration.

Since its launch in 1990, Hubble has made 1.6 million observations of more than 53,000 astronomical objectsTo date, the Mikulski Space Telescope Archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, contains 184 terabytes of scientifically processed data that is ready for astronomers around the world to use for research and analysis.

I have published 44,000 scientific articles from Hubble observationsThe space telescope is the most scientifically productive space astrophysics mission in NASA’s history. Demand for Hubble is so high that it is currently outsold six to one.

Most of Hubble’s discoveries were not anticipated before launch.Such as supermassive black holes, exoplanet atmospheres, dark matter gravitational lensing, the existence of dark energy, and the abundance of planet formation between stars.