NASA scientists discover a galaxy similar to Star Wars 'TIE Fighter'
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This galaxy was originally discovered in 2015 through gamma rays. However, scientists haven’t had a full grasp of what it looked like until now.
NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has spotted a galaxy which resembled to TIE Fighter, a famous and fictional ship from Star Wars.
This galaxy is 500 million light-years away from Cassiopeia. The galaxy is called TXS 0128+554. It is an active galaxy that emits more life than all of the stars within the galaxy altogether.
This galaxy was originally discovered in 2015 through gamma rays. However, scientists haven’t had a full grasp of what it looked like until now.
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Matthew Lister, Purdue University professor and lead author of the study that examined the galaxy, said it reminded him of “Star Wars.”
He said: "We zoomed in a million times closer on the galaxy using the (Very Long Baseline Array’s) radio antennas and charted its shape over time. The first time I saw the results, I immediately thought it looked like Darth Vader’s TIE fighter spacecraft from ‘Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope.’"
"That was a fun surprise, but its appearance at different radio frequencies also helped us learn more about how active galaxies can change dramatically on decade time scales," he added.