NASA telescope finds ‘twisted’ galaxy that looks like a question mark

NASA has captured a new image of a question mark-shaped galaxy cluster beyond the light ear, and astronomers say it may shed light on the Milky Way’s past.

In a press release shared by the organization on Wednesday, September 4, researchers announced that the James Webb Space Telescope was used to capture sharp images of two distant galaxies that were paired with a third galaxy cluster called MACS When forming a question mark shape.

The dusty red galaxy has been photographed before by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, but researchers used the Webb and Hubble telescopes to capture new images of it. According to NASA, astronomers are using MACS-J0417.5-1154 as a kind of magnifying glass because it is so large that it distorts the fabric of space-time.

“This allows astronomers to see enhanced detail in more distant galaxies behind star clusters. However, the gravitational effects of amplifying galaxies can also cause distortion, causing galaxies to appear as arcs smeared across the sky, or even multiple times,” NASA wrote in its press release. “These optical illusions in space are called gravitational lensing.”

Because of these distortions, the researchers say the galaxy captured by the telescope is interacting with a spiral galaxy (also previously detected by Hubble), and the “unusual” magnification and distortion of the two galaxies makes them appear to be along a Spiral galaxies appear many times.

This unusual distortion is called “hyperbolic umbilical gravitational lensing,” and it involves “a special, rare alignment between distant galaxies, the lens, and the observer,” according to NASA.

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Astronomer Guillaume Desprez said: “We know that similar gravitational lensing structures have only appeared three or four times in the observable universe, which makes this discovery exciting because it demonstrates Webb’s power and suggests that perhaps now We will find more such gravitational lensing structures.

NASA added that the question mark’s dot is an unrelated galaxy that just “happens to be in the right place and space-time from our perspective.”

The organization noted that the images and data were obtained as part of a case study to determine the ability of the Webb NIRISS (Near Infrared Imager and Seamless Spectrograph) instrument to collect information on star formation millions of light-years away. The question mark is a “Cool” addition.

“This looks cool. Amazing images like this are the reason I got into astronomy when I was young,” said lead astronomer Marcin Sawicki, also of Saint Mary’s University.

St. Mary’s astronomer Vincent Estrada-Carpenter added: “Understanding when, where and how stars form within galaxies is critical to understanding how galaxies have evolved over the history of the universe.”

According to Estrada-Carpenter, the two galaxies discovered through MACS-J0417.5-1154 are in the early stages of interaction and are likely the result of their collision.

“These galaxies were seen at the peak of star formation billions of years ago and were similar in mass to the Milky Way at that time. Webb allows us to study what our own galaxy would have looked like in its teenage years. Like,” Savage said. added.