Astronomers have released a stunning image snapped by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of the huge elliptical galaxy NGC 541 and its much smaller companion known as Minkowski’s object.
This Hubble image shows the elliptical galaxy NGC 541 and a star-forming peculiar galaxy called Minkowski’s object. Image credit: NASA / ESA / S. Croft, Eureka Scientific Inc. / Gladys Kober, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / Catholic University of America.
NGC 541 is located approximately 230 million light-years away in the constellation of Cetus.
Otherwise known as Arp 133, LEDA 5305, TC 440 or UGC 1004, it has a diameter of about 130,000 light-years.
Fist discovered on October 30, 1864 by the German astronomer Heinrich d’Arrest, NGC 541 belongs to a massive galaxy cluster called Abell 194.
“Elliptical galaxies such as NGC 541 are nearly spherical to egg-shaped groups of stars that form when galaxies merge,” Hubble astronomers said.
“NGC 541 shoots out radio jets that are invisible to human eyes but detectable by radio telescopes.”
“These jets originate in the accretion disk around the galaxy’s central black hole.”
The radio jet from NGC 541 likely caused a starburst in an irregular dwarf galaxy known as Minkowski’s object (bluish object to the lower left of NGC 541).
According to the astronomers, the smaller galaxy is about 7.5 million years old and consists of about 20 million stars.
They observed the pair to get a better sense of how star formation occurs in this region, what kind of star formation takes place, and the properties of the jet that triggers it.
“Radio galaxies like NGC 541 are surrounded by gaseous halos and/or debris from recent merger events — which may have triggered the radio galaxy activity in the first place,” they said.
“The jet plows into the moderately dense, warm gas around the galaxy and the shock compresses and heats the gas, causing it to become energized, or ionized.”
“As the ionized gas reverts from its higher-energy state to a lower-energy state, energy leaves the cloud in the form of radiation.”
“As the clouds cool, they collapse, giving rise to starbirth.”
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