Four different perspectives have been combined by a team of astronomers to create an overall image of the galaxy “Roue du Chariot”, which resembles a jellyfish after colliding with a smaller galaxy 100 million years ago.
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Galaxy “Roue du Chariot” (Image: obs.univ-lyon1) |
The research team led by Phil Appleton from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) utilized images captured through ultraviolet observations from the GALEX galaxy probe, infrared data from the Spitzer Space Telescope, the Hubble Space Telescope, and NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory to construct the picture of the galaxy “Roue du Chariot.”
The collision of two galaxies occurred like a brick falling into a mud puddle. This event created a series of concentric circles due to the pressure from gas. New stars are located in the outer rings of the galaxy, while the center of the galaxy is a very quiet area housing older stars. This is in stark contrast to the structure of other galaxies.
The outer ring of the galaxy observed in the images is not its boundary. Observations from the GALEX galaxy probe have revealed the existence of an additional ring, which contributes to doubling the diameter of the galaxy. In summary, the galaxy “Roue du Chariot” is 2.5 times larger than the “Milky Way.”
