It might not look like it, but this serene and stunning galaxy, which can be found about 40 million light-years from Earth in the Columba constellation, is in the midst of a tumultuous period in its evolution, perhaps after having experienced a close encounter with a neighboring galaxy,.
There are several interesting features of the galaxy, dubbed NGC 1808, that give the hypothesis credence, which include the peculiarly shaped central region and its misshapen disk; the powerful hydrogen outflows leading away from the core and the wisps of material that circle the galaxy (all of these things point to some kind of a gravitational encounter),
The coloring is meant to to help highlight key details of the 35,000 light-year-long galaxy. The huge spots of blue are places where is going down (the bluish color itself is the result of ionization) while the faint, reddish regions are representative of interstellar dust clouds, which hide newly-born stars from sight.
Jaime is a freelance writer, who feels like she can't be summarized in a single paragraph. She will say, however, that she is very passionate about science (particularly physics and astronomy). She used this passion to launch 'From Quarks to Quasars' in 2012.
Entities 0 Name: Columba Count: 1 1 Name: Earth Count: 1 2 Name: NGC Count: 1 Related Keywords 0 Name: galaxy Score: 30 1 Name: columba Score: 10 2 Name: light-years Score: 10 3 Name: newly-born Score: 10 4 Name: light-year-long Score: 10 5 Name: passion Score: 10 6 Name: encounter Score: 10 7 Name: 1808 Score: 10 8 Name: color Score: 9 9 Name: ionization Score: 9 authors 0 Name: Jaime Trosper Url: http://ift.tt/1qnjqht Media Images 0
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