Galactic Ballet Between Distant Galaxies Captured by Dark Energy Camera; Couple Expected to Merge After Million-Year Dance Concludes

One of our planet's most advanced imaging instruments captured a photograph of two distant galaxies that sit at a distant location from Earth. These galaxies are not just like our average neighbors in space, as their coordinates are extremely close. Experts call this type of cosmic phenomenon a 'galactic ballet.'

Experts from the National Science Foundation (NSF) led the recent observation of this rare occurrence in space. The image of the two galaxies was captured by the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope, located at Chile's Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory.

400-Million-Year-Dance Between NGC 1512 and NGC 1510 Galaxies

Galactic Ballet Between Distant Galaxies Captured by Dark Energy Camera

(Photo: NSF’s NOIRLab)
The interacting galaxy pair NGC 1512 and NGC 1510 take center stage in this image from the US Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera, a state-of-the-art wide-field imager on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. NGC 1512 has been in the process of merging with its smaller galactic neighbor for 400 million years, and this drawn-out interaction has ignited waves of star formation.

The analysis of the newly discovered galactic ballet was part of wider research of the NSF's National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory or NOIRLab. The equipment from the telescope that was able to spot the couple was the specialized imaging technique called the Dark Energy Camera.

The telescope was able to see both of the galaxies clearly amidst the darkness of the space. According to the experts, the entwined galaxies were identified as NGC 1512 and NGC 1510. Their massive gravity induced the reason behind their unusual activity, allowing them to pull themselves closer to each other.

The NGC 1512 galaxy is a spiral galaxy with characteristics similar to the Milky Way. NGC 1510, on the other hand, is not as big as its partner and is categorized as a dwarf galaxy.

Based on the readings from the couple's 'galactic ballet,' the two were found circling each other for approximately 400 years now. As each pass carries out, their shapes seem to warp and combine, resulting in a whirling effect seen in the telescope's recent imaging.

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The Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope's Dark Energy Camera was able to get a detailed perspective of the NGC galaxies. According to a report by Space, this camera is one of the most powerful imaging devices ever to exist in the history of astronomical observations.

Dark Energy Camera

The Dark Energy Camera is constructed with a four-meter-wide or about 13-foot-wide mirror and a one-meter wide or 3.3-foot-wide corrective lens.

The Dark Energy Camera was initially developed for experts to conclude a previous project called the Dark Energy Survey. This mission is led by the US Department of Energy's Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.

The Dark Energy Survey was completed with over 400 scientists from seven countries. The team discovered and captured images of over 300 million galaxies scattered across space throughout the project from 2013 to 2019. The main interest of the mission is to understand more about the dark energy hidden in many planetary neighborhoods of the universe.

After the wide-scale survey ended, the Dark Energy Camera was still involved in separate research requiring distant galaxies images.

The camera's recent photographs taken from the NGC 1512 and NGC 1510 would be the last images of the galactic ballet, as estimates reveal that the larger galaxy will ultimately consume its dwarf partner. This will conclude the million-year dance sometime in the future but will give birth to a new, merged galaxy in our age.