NASA says the Hubble Space Telescope has captured a mesmerizing sight of an unusual collection of five galaxies. NASA says it’s unique!
32 years! That’s exactly the amount of time NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has taken to discover new galaxies, mesmerizing moments of stars, planets and more. Yes, today is the birthday of the Hubble Space Telescope! There is not a single moment when the Hubble Space Telescope has failed to impress us with what it captures. Now celebrating the 32nd birthday of the Hubble Space Telescope, NASA has shared another spectacular image of five closely related galaxies that looks like a rare gravitational dance of galaxies! The image represents The Hickson Compact Group 40.
NASA explained the image by indicating a menagerie of galaxies that includes three spiral-shaped galaxies, an elliptical galaxy and a lens-like galaxy. It is also said that in some way these different galaxies intersected during their evolution, which created an extremely overcrowded and diverse sampler of galaxies. These closely related groups of galaxies can be found at the heart of huge galaxy clusters. However, these galaxies are particularly isolated in their own small part of the universe.
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How rare is the gravitational dance of the five galaxies?
NASA reveals a possible explanation behind the eclectic group of galaxies, as there is a lot of dark matter associated with these galaxies. “As galaxies pass through dark matter, they feel resistance due to its gravitational effects. This slows down their movement and causes galaxies to lose energy, so they fall together, “said NASA.
And that makes the gravitational dance of these five galaxies a rare picture that captures galaxies at a very special moment in their lives. To be precise, for almost 1 billion years! This is the time when they will eventually collide and merge to form a giant elliptical galaxy.
However, there are more than 100 such compact galaxy groups that have been captured in the last few decades, but the Hickson Compact Group 40 is one of the most densely packed. NASA observations suggest that such densely packed clusters of galaxies may have been more abundant in the early universe, which may have provided fuel to power black holes! Such discoveries help astronomers study and determine when and where galaxies are assembled and how they are assembled.
The Hubble Space Telescope was launched on April 25, 1990, and to date has made 1.5 million observations of approximately 50,000 celestial targets.
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