NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured a "tantalizing" thin bright rays and dark shadows beaming from the Northern Hemisphere constellation of Andromeda.
This galaxy resembles a "cosmic cinnamon bun" with a strange and tempting form called UGC 12588. Astronomers announced on the NASA website that UGC 12588 does not have a band of stars around its middle, unlike other spiral galaxies. Nor does it boast the classic influential pattern of the spiral arm commonly found in this group in other galaxies.
Instead, UGC 12588 consists of a white and largely unstructured core, rendering it more reminiscent of a cinnamon bun than a gas and star megastructure in space. It has large arms of stars and gas across its middle that are very faint, undistinguished and tightly wound.
Where is this twisted galaxy located?
According to Sci News, the cinnamon bun galaxy is around 31 million light-years out from the Milky Way. It is part of the Local Group, which contains over 50 galaxies, including Andromeda and the Milky Way.
Twisted collections of stars and gas that also have magnificent structures are spiral galaxies. There are also composed of young hot stars as well.
As compared to the other two primary types of galaxy forms, elliptical and irregular, the bulk of the galaxies observed by scientists are spiral galaxies. Around 72 percent of all galaxies found thus far are spirals, like the Milky Way, according to Space.com.
About two-thirds of spiral galaxies, including the Milky Way, often have a bar pattern at their core.
While many possible explanations are under discussion for the fascinating light-show, the most thrilling hypothesis indicates that an inner-tube-shaped ring of dusty stuff, known as the torus, casts its shadow into space around the black hole.
Why does this galaxy look like a cinnamon bun?
As the spirals become older, spiral galaxies are thought to turn into elliptical galaxies. The topic of the root of the spiral arms, however, is still up for discussion among scientists. One hypothesis proposed that the missiles could be the product of waves of density passing across the outer disk.
Professor Peter Maksym of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who conducted the research, told Express.co.uk that not all light is blocked by the dust disk around the black hole.
Instead, disc gaps cause any light to creep in, producing on a vast scale dazzling cone-shaped rays that extend for at least 36,000 light-years.
Professor Maksym says the interplay of light and darkness provides a rare glimpse into the flow of content surrounding the black hole.
He assumes that Hubble's new findings may give an indirect probe of the mottled composition of the disk.
If the astronomer's shadow's hypothesis is precise, the rays offer proof that the disk is incredibly small, which goes some distance to understand why light spills across the structure.
The space agency said more measurements of identical black holes produced by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory have observed X-rays escaping from the torus, providing a mottled "Swiss cheese" look.
These holes can be generated by the disk being torqued by internal powers, allowing it to warp, Professor Maksym thinks.
He plans to follow his galaxies analysis to decide whether his hypothesis is right, the astronomer said.
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