Astronomers have just unveiled what is claimed to be the most beautiful image to date of NGC 6744, a spiral galaxy described as the “twin sibling” of our Milky Way.
According to Live Science, using the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) on the 4-meter Víctor M. Blanco Telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory of the U.S. National Science Foundation, scientists captured detailed images of a galaxy that closely resembles the one containing Earth. This is the fantastical spiral galaxy known as NGC 6744.
The NGC 6744 spiral galaxy looks like a “parallel world” with the galaxy containing Earth – (Photo: Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA)
The NGC 6744 galaxy is located about 30 million light-years away from our Milky Way, in the Pavo constellation. Although it is nearly twice the size of our galaxy, it shares many similarities, such as distinct spiral arms and an expansive central region.
The spiral arms are home to many star-forming regions. The bright light from hydrogen gas in these active areas is depicted in red in the image.
According to NASA, the structures of this galaxy closely resemble the world that Earth inhabits, which is why they refer to it as the “big brother” of the Milky Way.
As a result, it has become a treasure for astronomers.
This is because we find it challenging to obtain a favorable view to fully observe the Milky Way as our planet is nestled within it.
In fact, we cannot even photograph our “home” since there has been no way to send spacecraft outside the Milky Way.
Finding NGC 6744 is akin to discovering a parallel world. Astronomers can observe this distant galaxy from a favorable angle, learning about it to understand how our own galaxy operates.
In the newly released image, NGC 6744 features a bright core and lanes of dust that provide fuel for star formation.
To the left of NGC 6744 is a faint branch not visible in most images of the galaxy, while in the lower right corner, at the end of a spiral arm, is an image of a faint companion galaxy known as NGC 6744A.
NGC 6744 also serves as a prototype for the most common type of galaxy in the universe—the spiral galaxy, which is of the same class as the Milky Way—making it a valuable subject for numerous studies on the history and functioning of the universe.
