Hubble witnesses aftermath of galactic smash-up
According to this bright scattering of stars, it seems that NASA’s space telescope has captured the result of a galaxy collision
Bursts of pink and red, dark lanes of mottled cosmic dust, and a bright scattering of stars in messy barred spiral galaxy NGC 428. Image Credit: ESA/Hubble/S. Smartt (Queen’s University Belfast)/Nick Rose
According to this bright scattering of stars, it seems that NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has captured the result of a galactic collision of epic proportions.
Bursts of pink and red along with dark lanes of mottled cosmic dust frame NGC 428’s spiral structure, which appears to be quite distorted and warped. The scene is the telltale signs of a merger between two galaxies, where a substantial amount of star formation has been kickstarted from the collisions between clouds of gas, which have gone onto create intense shocks and hot pockets of gas, triggering the making of new stars.
The galaxy NGC 428, which can be found 48 million light years away from Earth in the constellation of Cetus (The Sea Monster) was discovered by William Herschel in December 1786. A supernova dubbed SN2013ct was recently discovered within the galaxy by astronomer Stuart Parker of the Backyard Observatory Supernova Search (BOSS) based in both Australia and New Zealand.
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