NASA’s Hubble Detects Merger of Two Galactic Titans – Teach Me Science

Recently, one of NASA’s most famous space telescopes, Hubble, discovered a strange formation that, after research, experts believe is the result of the merger of two huge galactic titans.

Over the years, humans have always had an insatiable thirst for knowledge, which has prompted us to come up with ways to satisfy this need to know and learn more about everything around us.

Thanks to advances in technology, people have been able to answer many unanswered questions that have been asked for years, but not before unleashing a storm of new mysteries.

Space exploration is one of the areas of science and technology that is receiving the most attention, as this space race has made impressive advances that may one day lead us to becoming an interplanetary species.

One of the most recognized space agencies worldwide is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, also known by its acronym in English as NASA.

NASA, one of the largest special agencies in the world, currently carrying out many missions in space. One of the space telescopes managed to take a picture that surprised scientists on Earth.

The incredible fact captured in the photographs was a possible union of two galaxies, an event that is rarely seen even with current technology and which was discovered by the Hubble Space Telescope.

Located 14.5 million light years from Earth is NGC 5238, a distant dwarf galaxy that has a very unique characteristic that sets it apart from all the others: its irregular shape.

In recent days, the Hubble telescope has turned its gaze to Canes Venatici, the constellation in which NGC 5238 resides, revealing a complex cluster of stars that, more than just a cluster, are the stars of the aforementioned galaxy, arranged in a chaotic mess.

Galaxies typically have a particular shape, which depends on many factors, but mainly on the gravity of the stars that form it.

Scientists, after carefully analyzing the data and images obtained by Hubble, realized that the very amorphous distribution of the galaxy could be due to the fact that a smaller galaxy came so close to NGC 5238 that it swallowed it up, but not without leaving chaos in this awakening.

The gravitational collision of both galaxies caused a mess in their stars and rocky shapes, stars with very different elements from each other, an explosion recorded by Hubble – these are some of the clues the Universe leaves us to theorize about the merger between them.

Because NGC 5238 is a teardrop-shaped galaxy in disarray, scientists believe it offers insight into how larger galaxies are born, as it is thought to begin by merging smaller galaxies that gradually grow larger as they accumulate material.