Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

Jewish Business News

Space

Hubble’s Amazing image of five galaxies

The Hickson Compact Group 40 snapshot reflects a special moment in their lifetimes as they fall together before they merge.

The Hickson Compact Group 40 before they merge

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is celebrating its 32nd birthday with a magnificent view of the Hickson Compact Group 40, an extraordinary close-knit grouping of five galaxies. This photo captures a special moment in their lives as they collide before merging.

The group has three spiral galaxies, an elliptical galaxy, and a lenticular (lens-like) galaxy. They are caught in a slow gravitational dance and are so dense that they may fit within an area of space less than twice the width of our Milky Way’s stellar disc.

Though such galaxy clusters can be found at the center of massive galaxy clusters, these galaxies are notable for being isolated in their own small area of the Universe, in the direction of the constellation Hydra.

Please help us out :
Will you offer us a hand? Every gift, regardless of size, fuels our future.
Your critical contribution enables us to maintain our independence from shareholders or wealthy owners, allowing us to keep up reporting without bias. It means we can continue to make Jewish Business News available to everyone.
You can support us for as little as $1 via PayPal at [email protected].
Thank you.

One theory is that these galaxies are surrounded by a lot of dark matter (a poorly known and unseen kind of substance). If they get close enough, the dark matter can create a large cloud around which the galaxies orbit.

As the galaxies pass through the dark matter, they feel a frictional force caused by the gravitational effects of the dark matter.

This slows their speed and causes the galaxies to lose energy, causing them to collide. As a result, this photo captures the galaxies at a particularly special point in their lives. They will eventually collide and combine to form a single giant elliptical galaxy in around 1 billion years.

The Hickson Compact Group 40 snapshot reflects a special moment in their lifetimes as they fall together before they merge.
The Hickson Compact Group 40 snapshot reflects a special moment in their lifetimes as they fall together before they merge.

This galaxy group has been studied not only in visible light, but also in radio, infrared, and X-ray wavelengths. Almost all the galaxies have a compact radio emission at their center, which could indicate the presence of a supermassive black hole.

X-ray observations reveal that the galaxies have been gravitationally interacting, as evidenced by the presence of a large amount of hot gas among them. Infrared measurements provide information on the rate at which new stars develop.

Despite the fact that over 100 such compact galaxy groups have been identified in sky surveys dating back decades, Hickson Compact Group 40 is one of the most tightly packed. According to observations, such compact groupings were more prevalent in the early Universe and provided fuel for powering black holes known as quasars, whose light from superheated expanding material blazed across space.

Studying the features of galaxies in neighboring clusters like this helps astronomers figure out when and where galaxies form, as well as what they form from.

Newsletter



Advertisement

You May Also Like

World News

In the 15th Nov 2015 edition of Israel’s good news, the highlights include:   ·         A new Israeli treatment brings hope to relapsed leukemia...

Life-Style Health

Medint’s medical researchers provide data-driven insights to help patients make decisions; It is affordable- hundreds rather than thousands of dollars

Entertainment

The Movie The Professional is what made Natalie Portman a Lolita.

Leadership

Jews are disproportionately represented on the roster of the richest business people, with 10 Jews among the top 50 (20%), and 38 (19%) Jews...