Astronomers at the University of Minnesota Duluth and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences have identify a newfangled class of anchor ring galaxy . Named PGC 1000714 , it boast an elliptical core with not one , but two forbidden rings . It ’s the only known galaxy of its kind in the known universe .
Most galax are either saucer - shaped spirals or bollock - shaped ellipticals , but there are some oddballs as well , such as lenticular galaxies ( form of a cross between spirals and ellipticals ) , irregular extragalactic nebula ( which do n’t really have a discernable shape or structure ) , and extremely - downcast density galaxies known as ultra diffuse objects .
Among these oddballs are halo extragalactic nebula — beautiful celestial objects featuring a well - defined elliptical effect that ’s surrounded by a single pack of wizard — and with nothing visibly connecting them . The most famed of these isHoag ’s Object(pictured at left ) , which was find in 1950 , and is name in honor of the astronomer who first spotted it , Arthur Hoag . Ring galaxies , also love as Hoag - object , are exceptionally rare in the universe — less than 0.1 percent of all keep galaxies are Hoag - character extragalactic nebula — and astronomers make a big fuss whenever one is find .
fit in to anew studypublished in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society , we can contribute a new ring coltsfoot to this very short list — but it ’s a ring galaxy that deserves a sub - classification of its own : an ovoid core surrounded by two discernible and independent ring .
The object , do it as PGC 1000714 , or Burcin ’s Galaxy ( cite after the steer writer of the paper , Burcin Mutlu - Pakdil ) , is site just about 359 million sluttish - year forth , and its unusual construction is providing astronomers with unique insights into how galaxies forge and evolve .
By break down multi - waveband images of the galaxy , the researchers detected a blue , i.e. young , outer mob ( about 0.13 billion old age old ) , surrounded by a red , i.e. old , central prolate magnetic core ( about 5.5 billion yr erstwhile ) . out of the blue , they also discovered a second inner ring around the central body .
“ We ’ve observed galaxies with a blue ring around a primal red trunk before , the most well - bed of these is Hoag ’s object . However , the alone feature of this galaxy is what looks like an older diffuse red inner ring , ” note Patrick Treuthardt , co - author of the study and an astrophysicist at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences , in a statement .
Astronomers are n’t entirely certain how ring galaxy kind , but it ’s possible that their outer regions emerge as the consequence of colliding gas . “ The different color of the inner and outer ring suggest that this galaxy has see two unlike constitution catamenia , ” said Mutlu - Pakdil . That said , the researchers believe it ’s practically insufferable to know how the rings of this particular extragalactic nebula formed .
“ Whenever we find a unique or foreign object to study , it challenges our current theory and assumptions about how the universe operate , ” said Treuthardt . “ It usually tell us that we still have a lot to determine . ”
[ Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ]
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