2023-09-22 04:00:08
New galaxies with astonishing structures have been detected by a team of researchers, paving the way for new understandings of the cosmos. These discoveries, led by Nathan Deg and Kristine Spekkens, suggest that polar ring galaxies may be much more common than previously thought.
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain
Nathan Deg and Kristine Spekkens of Queen’s University conducted an analysis of data collected using a telescope. meaning “far” and skopein meaning…) of the CSIRO, the Australian national science agency (Science (Latin scientia, “knowledge”) is, according to the dictionary…). By studying the maps celestial hydrogen gas (Hydrogen is a chemical element with symbol H and atomic number 1.) from more than 600 galaxies as part of the CSIRO’s WALLABY survey, they identified two potential polar ring galaxies. type of galaxy (Galaxies is a quarterly French magazine devoted to science fiction. With…) presents a d ring (The D ring is a planetary ring located around Saturn, the innermost of the rings…)’ stars and gas perpendicular to its main spiral disk.
Understanding the evolution of galaxies
The study of polar ring structures can contribute to a better understanding of the evolution of galaxies. One of the main hypotheses is that these rings might form during the merger of a large galaxy with a larger one. small. Their more frequent presence might mean that these mergers are more common than previously thought.
Future applications might also be in research on dark matter (In astrophysics, dark matter (or dark matter), translation from English…). It would be possible to use these rings to probe the shape of the black matter of the host galaxy.
Viewing polar ring galaxies
Jayanne English, a member of the WALLABY research team and an astronomical imaging expert at the University of Manitoba, developed the first images of these gaseous polar ring galaxies. These composite images, which include optical and radio data, allow us to see what the human eye cannot detect. .
Tom Jarrett, from the University of Cape Town, helped separate radio broadcasts from the ring from those from the galactic disk using virtual reality tools. The result is a subtle illustration of the orbital movements of the gas in the ring.
The next step for the team is to confirm these findings through additional observations with different telescopes, including the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa. .
Nathan Deg, a researcher in the Department of Physics at Queen’s University, points out that “these results are a great illustration of the incredible value of mapping the sky more deeply and more widely than before. Kristine Spekkens, a professor at Queen’s University, adds that “this is serendipity at its best: we found things that we certainly didn’t expect to find.”
1695449043
#polar #ring #galaxies
