BIZARRE GALAXIES IN THE UNIVERSE

NGC 6872

The galaxy known as NGC 6872 is the second largest spiral

galaxy ever discovered. Its beautiful tail (ironic that it is in

the constellation of Pavo, the Peacock) is a stretched arm full

of star forming regions. Since this strange galaxy doesn’t

have much free hydrogen, it relies on material pulled from

nearby IC 4970 (just above in the picture) for star birth.

MACS J0416

Found around 4.3 billion light years from Earth, MACS J0416

looks more like what the kids at Woodstock saw while the

musicians played. The bright purple and pink colours hide

a deeper struggle here, namely that two galaxy clusters

are about to collide.

M60 & NGC 4647 – THE GALAXY COUPLE

Though most galaxies’ gravitational pulls bring them closer

together, there’s no evidence of that with Messier 60 and

NGC 4647. But there’s no evidence of them drifting apart either.

Like content old lovers, the two galaxies drift together in space,

exhibiting only minor tidal interaction between them.

MESSIER 81

Messier 81 is a spiral galaxy with a supermassive black hole

70 million times greater than the mass of the sun at its centre.

M81 is home to many short living but hot burning blue

stars which heat nearby dust as seen in its spiral arms.

Gravitational interactions with M82 have seen both

galaxies pulling hydrogen gas away from each other,

resulting in wispy lines of gas or high amounts of interstellar

gas accumulating in their centres, leading to the

rapid star formation.

ANTENNAE GALAXIES

About 600 million years ago, NGC 4038 and NGC 4039 crashed

into each other, beginning a massive exchange of stars and

galactic matter. Though scientists think the galaxies look like

an antennae, it looks to us like it would be better known

as the love galaxy.

SOMBRERO GALAXY

Amateur astronomers eagerly flock to the Sombrero Galaxy,

so named because of its bright nucleus and large

central bulge. Add in this spiral galaxy’s easily evident

dust lane and it looks like a sombrero in the sky.

2MASX J16270254+4328340

This blurry galaxy is known by the seemingly overcomplicated

name of 2MASX J16270254+4328340. The result of two

galaxies merging, this strange galaxy has produced a fine

mist consisting of millions of stars radiating out from its centre.

The mist is expected to slowly dissipate since the entire galaxy

is nearing the end of its life with its stars cooling and dimming.

NGC 5793

Not too strange (though immensely beautiful) on first look,

the spiral galaxy NGC 5793 is better known for a rare

phenomenon: masers. We’re familiar with lasers, which emit

light in the visible range of the spectrum, but not as much

with masers, which emit light in the microwave range.

Masers are not-too common, astronomically speaking

and produce light by absorbing surrounding energy

and re-emitting it in the spectrum’s microwave range.