Astronomers discover galaxy gift-wrapped in cosmic ribbon. It is some 56mn light years from Earth
NGC 4632
Astronomers recently discovered an enormous ribbon of hydrogen encircling a spiral galaxy called NGC 4632, which is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Virgo. They said they found it using CSIRO's Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope, on Wajarri Yamaji Country in Western Australia.
The researchers have published the findings in a new paper in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. The rare galaxy appears to be gift wrapped in a cosmic ribbon and it is 56 million light-years from Earth.
Astronomers originally spotted an odd gas structure surrounding the galaxy in 2022, but the latest photographs from ASKAP have revealed that the galaxy has a "ribbon".
"We used the IDAVIE virtual reality software to separate the anomalous gas from the galactic gas and found that the anomalous gas comprises ∼50 per cent of the total H I content of both systems," the study noted.
Astronomers believe they have discovered a unique "polar ring galaxy (PRG)" and these have a ring or disc of material perpendicular to the galaxy's direction.
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"We have generated plausible 3D kinematic models for each galaxy, assuming that the rings are circular and inclined at 90° to the galaxy bodies. These models show that the data are consistent with PRGs but do not definitively prove that the galaxies are PRGs," the study read.
They are among the most enigmatic and intriguing objects in the universe. The gaseous ring surrounding NGC 4632 can only be seen from Earth at radio wavelengths.
Astrophysicist Nathan Deg of Queens University in Canada: "The findings suggest that one to three per cent of nearby galaxies may have gaseous polar rings, which is much higher than suggested by optical telescopes. Polar ring galaxies might be more common than previously thought."
"While this is not the first time astronomers have observed polar ring galaxies, NGC 4632 is the first observed with ASKAP and there may be many more to come," Deg added.
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