
The skyrocket galaxy observed by Hubble is located 82 million light away from Earth.
The Hubble Space Telescope discovered a skyrocket galaxy spreading fireworks into the deep dark space.
The Kiso 5639 galaxy shines brightly as new stars are being born on one side of its gravitational field. Its plate shape and its tilt, together with the spark of the new stars, make it resemble a skyrocket.
The galaxy is located 82 million light away from Earth, in an area very poor in gas. German scientists from the Heidelberg University believe that Kiso 5639 encountered a mass of gas which triggered the formation of new stars on one of its edges.
The elongated galaxies are abundant, but they are also very distant to Earth. Astronomers think that the star birth lights are enhanced by the intergalactic gas which may be situated on one of the galaxy’s sides.
The researchers studying the star formation believe that this type of galaxy was very common in the early days of the Universe. The theory says that all galaxies were formed through the accumulation of gas, which in conjunction with star birth can create an incredible display of light.
Even though scientists believe that almost ten percent of the galaxies have elongated shape, only a few of them had been observed until now.
The creation of such elongated gravitational fields of stars can take much more time than the rest of the galaxies.
The team of researchers from the Vassar College in New York has studied the Kiso 5639 galaxy in hope they will uncover the secrets of the birth of the Universe. They used the Hubble’s data to determine the mass and the age of the stars.
An international team selected ten tadpole galaxies, including Kiso 5639, and reached the conclusion that the gas distribution is not uniform. On the brighter side, the universe contains mostly hydrogen and fewer heavy elements than the darker side.
One explanation may be that the heavy elements are only released after the death of the star, and the head of the skyrocket galaxy contains only young stars.
The young star clusters from Kiso 5639 have an age of 1 million years, and they are up to six times larger than the older stars from the same galaxy. The darker side of the galaxy fosters stars that are a billion years old.
Another interesting fact revealed by Hubble is the presence of giant holes in the gas surrounding the young stars. Scientists believe that these anomalies are created by the rarefied gas left behind the supernova detonations.
Even if for now the lack of balance made people compare it to a skyrocket galaxy, the researchers expect that the situation will change in the future. The universe will continue to spin and expose different parts of its surface to the gas deposit, which will make new stars spark all around it.
Image Source: Flickr