Hubble Captures Intense Galaxy That Is Basically A Star Factory

Hubble Captures Intense Galaxy That Is Basically A Star Factory

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Extremely energetic supernova explosions and winds from the massive stars formed in the galaxy are causing galactic weather called superwind.

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Hubble Captures Intense Galaxy That Is Basically A Star Factory

NASA’s Hubble telescope has captured an image of a galaxy named NGC 4666 that is undergoing an intense episode of star formation due to interaction with nearby galaxies and is also home to an extreme form of galactic weather that scientists call a superwind. Galactic interactions are a common phenomenon in the universe and can involve more than two galaxies interacting with each other over a long period of time, often resulting in phenomena such as galactic mergers or collisions.

These interaction events between galaxies lead to bursts of star formations in the arms of a galaxy, and the end result is often the formation of a larger galaxy that may or may not retain the shape of one of the original merging galaxies. Irregular galaxies are known to be borne out of such interaction events of cosmic scale, but the final outcome can sometimes be an elliptical galaxy as well. However, a key difficulty in studying their shape is that a fixed plane of observation doesn’t always paint the right picture about their shape, as spiral galaxies often appear elliptical or distorted depending on which angle in space they are viewed from.

The latest image clicked by Hubble shows a galaxy undergoing some intense interaction called NGC 4666, which is located approximately 80 million light-years away in the Virgo constellation. It falls under the class of starburst galaxies, which are galaxies that exhibit an unusually high rate of formation compared to an average galaxy in the universe. As mentioned above, an event like a galactic starburst is triggered when interaction happens with another galaxy, which may be a collision or merger. However, the parent galaxy must have a large reservoir of gas that is slowly depleted over time to form new stars. A recent study actually postulated that massive ancient galaxies stopped star formation and entered a “quiescent” state because they ran out of cold gas.

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Superwinds Caused By Gas Spewing And Supernova Explosions

Another interesting fact to note about the NGC 4666 galaxy is its rather extreme weather condition that scientists call a superwind, which is essentially the galactic center spewing a vast amount of gas into space. The superwind is huge in scale, as the torrent of superheated gas being released by the galaxy in question can extend to tens of thousands of light-years. Even though the superwind cannot be seen in the image captured by the revived Hubble telescope, the radiation emitted can be seen in the X-Ray spectrum and with other methods of radio observation.

As for the reason behind this superwind phenomenon in the NGC 4666 galaxy, scientists suggest a combination of two factors behind it — driving winds from the massive stars formed during the starburst phase and a handful of extremely powerful supernova explosions. In the past decade, scientists have actually observed two supernova explosions in the galaxy, and one of the stars that triggered the 2019 supernova is said to be 19 times as massive as the Sun. The other supernova that was observed in 2014 is still active, but its intensity has far reduced from its peak and it now appears to be just another bright star in the NGV 4666 galaxy.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/hubble-photo-galaxy-star-formation/

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