The newly released image of Cartwheel Galaxy shows a whirling ring of colour with exceptional clarity.
Aug 3, 2022, 09:43 am IST
Around 500 million light-years away in the constellation Sculptor lies a rather peculiar looking galaxy, known as the Cartwheel galaxy. It was once a normal spiral galaxy that underwent a head-on interaction with a smaller companion galaxy several million years ago, giving it its signature cartwheel appearance. But there are other curious things about this object. Something interesting is taking place in the lower left corner of this image, captured in December 2021 with ESO’s New Technology Telescope (NTT): a supernova. Compare it with this image, taken in August 2014 by the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) mounted on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), shows the galaxy before this supernova took place. This event, called SN2021afdx, is a type II supernova, which occurs when a massive star reaches the end of its evolution. Supernovae can cause a star to shine brighter than its entire host galaxy and can be visible to observers for months, or even years — a blink of an eye on astronomical timescales. Supernovae are one of the reasons astronomers say we are all made of stardust: they sprinkle the surrounding space with heavy elements forged by the progenitor star, which may end up being part of later generations of stars, the planets around them and life that may exist in those planets. Detecting and studying these unpredictable events requires international collaboration. The first time SN2021afdx was spotted was in November 2021 by the ATLAS survey, and it was then followed up by ePESSTO+, the Public ESO Spectroscopic Survey for Transient Objects. ePESSTO+ is designed to study objects that are only in the night sky for very short periods of time, such as this supernova. It does this by using the EFOSC2 and SOFI instruments on the NTT, located at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile. EFOSC2 not only took this beautiful image, but also spectra that allowed the PESSTO team to identify this event as a type II supernova. Links Comparison video alternating
NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) said on Tuesday that the James Webb Space Telescope’s image of the Cartwheel Galaxy shows the rotating ring of colour with previously unheard-of detail.
The Webb telescope has a much wider field of view than the Hubble telescope, which had previously taken pictures of the uncommon ring galaxy, and is able to peer across time and enormous volumes of dust.
The Cartwheel, which is 500 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Sculptor, was formed by a stunning head-on collision between two galaxies.
Two rings were blasted outward from the galaxy’s centre by the hit, according to a joint statement from NASA and the ESA.
A smaller white ring has remained closer to the galaxy’s centre while the outer ring has been extending into the universe for about 440 million years, according to the statement.
The outer ring, with its spokes of colour, grows as it collides with gas, igniting the creation of new stars.
According to NASA and the ESA, Webb’s capacity to detect infrared light allowed it to see through the ‘tremendous volume of heated dust’ and obtain the image without obstructing the view of the Cartwheel Galaxy.
It was able to identify regions rich in hydrocarbons and other compounds while also revealing fresh information about the behaviour of the supermassive black hole at its centre.
While even more galaxies can be seen behind them, two smaller galaxies shine brightly behind the Cartwheel and show that it is still in the ‘very transitory stage’.
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