The Hubble Space Telescope is celebrating its 32nd birthday.
The iconic space observatory was launched on April 24, 1990, and scientists noted the case with a captivating look at a closely related group of five galaxies called the Hickson Compact Group 40, a press release said.
Five galaxies locked in a gravitational dance
The galaxies are so close together that they will eventually merge into one another and merge into one massive whole. The group contains three spiral galaxies, an elliptical galaxy and a lenticular (lens-like) galaxy.
The grouping of galaxies is not unheard of, but this network of galaxies is surprisingly compact. They were all caught in a gravitational dance and would fit in an area less than twice the diameter of the star disk of the Milky Way. Scientists believe that the group of galaxies will merge gradually over approximately 1 billion years.
Almost all of these galaxies have a compact radio source in their core, which could indicate the presence of a supermassive black hole. X-ray observations show gravitational interactions between galaxies, characterized by hot gas traveling from one galaxy to the center of another.
Hubble has made more than 1.5 million observations
Astronomers have cataloged more than 100 compact galaxy groups over the past few decades. Scientists are looking for them in the night sky, as close interaction between several complex networks could reveal a new perspective on the formation of stars and galaxies.
Since its launch in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope has made more than 1.5 million observations and censuses, leading to the publication of 18,000 scientific papers. This month, NASA announced that scientists had used Hubble’s observations to confirm the size of comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein, confirming that it was the largest ice comet nucleus ever observed by astronomers.
In recent months and years, Hubble has faced a number of technical problems that have led scientists to believe it is nearing the end of its life. However, it is difficult to predict exactly when Hubble will stop its operations, and the iconic space observatory still has some gas in its reservoir.
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