Hubble Space Telescope helps astronomers find colossal nine-ring galaxy in 'cosmic bullseye'
Scientists have discovered an impressive galaxy using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, which has six more rings than other previously known galaxies and an arrow-like feature straight through its center.
Hubble captured a "cosmic bullseye" with galaxy LEDA 1313424, according to Nasa. After finding the first eight rings with Hubble, the science team confirmed a ninth ring using data from the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii. Most other galaxies discovered have a maximum of two or three rings.
The team behind the findings published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters believes there may have been a 10th ring, but it is too dim to see.
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The artist's concept below shows our home galaxy, the Milky Way, next to the newly discovered galaxy nicknamed "Bullseye." LEDA 1313424, aka Bullseye, is almost two-and-a-half times larger than the Milky Way, at 250,000 light-years across.
NASA said the discovery was also a bullseye for science because of what it confirms about galaxy ring formation over time.
Yale professor Pieter G. van Dokkum, a study co-author, said the rings appear to move outward nearly as models predict.
"That theory was developed for the day that someone saw so many rings," van Dokkum said. "It is immensely gratifying to confirm this long-standing prediction with the Bullseye galaxy."
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If you look down at the galaxy, the rings appear closer to the center, and more spread out the farther away from the core.
Scientists say the arrow-like feature straight through the gigantic galaxy was formed when a blue dwarf galaxy shot through the heart of Bullseye about 50 million years ago, creating more rings in its wake. NASA said it's common for galaxies to collide but "extremely rare" to see one shoot through the center of another.
Hubble's image was captured at just the right time.
"There's a very narrow window after the impact when a galaxy like this would have so many rings," van Dokkum said.
Bullseye will help astronomers improve models of how galaxies evolve over billions of years.Original article source: Hubble Space Telescope helps astronomers find colossal nine-ring galaxy in 'cosmic bullseye'
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