The European Southern Observatory's (ESO's) Very Large Telescope (VLT), located at the Paranal Observatory in Chile, has discovered a mysterious young dwarf galaxy in the aftermath of a cosmic collision that took place approximately 360 million years ago, as outlined in the scientists' paper.
The rare galaxy was revealed in great detail in newly released images, which may help astronomers learn more about similar galaxies that are believed the have been more common in the early years of the Universe, according to the press release.
The white dwarf NGC 5291 is an elliptical galaxy that is located in the Centaurus constellation 200 million light-years away; galaxies of this type are typically too distant to be picked up by modern telescopes, making the finding even more important. NGC 5291 collided with another galaxy travelling at high speeds 360 million years ago, resulting in the eruption of massive gas streams that eventually settled into the ring formation that now surrounds the star.
So what makes NGC 5291 unique? To its right lies NGC 5291N, a dwarf galaxy that lacks the typical characteristics of one, instead sharing more similarities with the clumpy structures of the galaxies in the outskirts of our Universe, galaxies typically too far away to be observed in detail. These kinds of galaxies are essential for advancing our study of the early gas-rich galaxies of our Universe.
The ESO plans to conduct further observations of NGC 5291 and its surrounding galaxies with their European Extremely Large Telescope (E-EST) in order to further understand the mysteries of the these unique stars.
