NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day 23 February 2023: The weird Spiral Galaxy Arp 78
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Gravity binds a galaxy, which is a wide assembly of gas, dust, billions of stars, and their respective photo voltaic programs. Galaxies show an array of measurements, ranging from diminutive dwarf galaxies with a meager population of a couple billion stars to colossal elliptical galaxies with trillions of stars. While most galaxies have elliptical styles, some have exclusive styles, these as toothpicks or rings. A single of the most awesome styles in which galaxies exist is the Spiral Galaxy.
NASA’s Astronomy Image of the Working day is a picture of a spiral galaxy named Arp 78. It is an massive galaxy which spans just about 200,000 light-weight-a long time across and exists practically 100 million light-weight-many years absent in the constellation Aries. Arp 78 is also acknowledged as NGC 772. Together with Arp 78, one more faint galaxy can be viewed, which is NGC 770. The photograph was captured by astrophotographer Josep Drudis.
What is a Spiral Galaxy?
In accordance to NASA, Spiral galaxies are actively forming stars that make up a significant amount of all the galaxies in our nearby universe. They can be further divided into two teams: usual spirals and barred spirals. In barred spirals, a bar of stars operates through the central bulge of the galaxy.
NASA’s description of the photograph
Peculiar spiral galaxy Arp 78 is uncovered inside of the boundaries of the head robust constellation Aries. Some 100 million light-yrs beyond the stars and nebulae of our Milky Way galaxy, the island universe is an monumental 200,000 light-a long time across. Also regarded as NGC 772, it sporting activities a distinguished, outer spiral arm in this comprehensive cosmic portrait.
Monitoring along sweeping dust lanes and lined with younger blue star clusters, Arp 78’s overdeveloped spiral arm is pumped-up by galactic-scale gravitational tides. Interactions with its brightest companion galaxy, the a lot more compact NGC 770 found previously mentioned and right of the bigger spiral, are possible dependable. Embedded in faint star streams unveiled in the deep telescopic publicity, NGC 770’s fuzzy, elliptical visual appeal contrasts nicely with spiky foreground Milky Way stars in matching yellowish hues.
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Source hyperlink Today, the NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day presents an astounding image of a peculiar spiral galaxy, known as Arp 78. This cosmic oddity is located approximately 170 million light years away from Earth in the constellation of Draco.
Arp 78 could easily be mistaken as a normal spiral galaxy, but upon closer inspection, it appears to consist of two rounded structures that are connected by two long streamers.
The first structure is a nearly face-on spiral galaxy. This structure is tipped slightly eastward, which is the starbursting region on the western side of the galaxy. It appears that this central region of the galaxy has been producing a large portion of the galaxy’s star formation over the past few million years. Another feature in this structure is the small diffuse galaxy located just below the center of the larger galaxy.
The second structure is a rounded spiral of stars that are connected to the first structure via two long streamers of younger stars. It appears that this structure is due to the influence of an encounter between the two galaxies at some point in their past.
Captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, this image is one of the few images of its type, allowing us the opportunity to investigate this strange spiral galaxy.
The small diffuse galaxy located near the centre is likely a remnant of the merging of two galaxies, hence its peculiar shape. But the long streamers of younger stars point to the fact that this merger has been a relatively recent one — an event that has just begun.
This image demonstrates how turbulent intergalactic encounters can be even billions of light years away in an ever-changing universe.