Astronomers have used the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to capture a detailed image of the spectacular centre of the Triangulum Galaxy.
The Triangulum Galaxy is the third largest galaxy in our galaxy group. Image credit: NASA/ESA/M. Boyer, STScI/J. Dalcanton, University of Washington/Gladys Kober, NASA and The Catholic University of America.
The Triangulum Galaxy, also known as Messier 33, M33, and NGC 598, is a spiral galaxy located about 3 million light-years away.
Under very dark sky conditions, the galaxy can be seen with the naked eye as a faint, fuzzy object in the constellation Triangulum, and its ethereal glow makes it a fascination for amateur astronomers.
The galaxy is a notable member of the Local Group, a collection of more than 50 galaxies bound together by gravity. It is the third largest galaxy in the Local Group, but it is also the smallest spiral galaxy in the group.
The Triangulum Galaxy is only about 60,000 light years in diameter, and the Andromeda Galaxy is 200,000 light years in diameter. The Milky Way Galaxy is about 100,000 light years in diameter, placing it halfway between these two extremes.
“The Triangulum Galaxy is a known hotbed of star birth, forming stars at an average rate ten times higher than in the neighboring Andromeda Galaxy,” Hubble astronomers said in a statement.
“Interestingly, its well-ordered spiral arms indicate that it has few interactions with other galaxies, so galactic collisions are not driving rapid star formation as they do in many other galaxies.”
“The galaxy has an abundance of dust and gas to produce stars, and it also has many clouds of ionized hydrogen, also known as HII regions, that give rise to phenomenal star formation.”
“Researchers present evidence that high-mass stars form in collisions between giant molecular clouds in the Triangulum Galaxy.”
This new image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows a reddish cloud of ionized hydrogen dotted with dark dust bands that make the image look grainy but are actually a swarm of stars.
“The Triangulum Galaxy is one of fewer than 100 galaxies close enough that a telescope like Hubble can resolve individual stars, as revealed here,” the astronomers write.
“It is known that this galaxy does not have a central bulge, and there is no evidence of a supermassive black hole at its center. This is odd, given that most spiral galaxies have a central bulge made of densely packed stars, and most large galaxies have supermassive black holes at their centers.”
“Galaxies with this type of structure are called pure disk galaxies, and studies suggest that they make up about 15-18 percent of galaxies in the universe.”
“The Triangulum Galaxy could lose its streamlined appearance and peaceful state in a dramatic way, potentially colliding with both the Andromeda and Milky Way galaxies.”
“The image was taken as part of an investigation of the Triangulum Galaxy to refine theories on topics such as the physics of the interstellar medium, star formation processes and stellar evolution.”
Source: www.sci.news
