In a corner of the universe, 290 million light-years from Earth, we are witnessing something truly spectacular at work.
There, four galaxies interact closely, and the region is filled with debris from past collisions and is so vast and energetic that interactions between galaxies expand the space between them. It is brightly lit. x-ray shock front.
The group is known as Stefan’s Quintet (a fifth galaxy exists, but it’s not really sitting with the cool kids), and new observations have complicated the ongoing activities. It became clear. One of the four galaxies involved is hurtling through the galaxy group like a wrecking ball at 3.2 million kilometers (2 million miles per hour), causing trouble.
These discoveries will help scientists understand how giant galaxies interact, collide, and merge to create even larger galaxies that are gravitationally pulled across rifts in space and time.
“Since its discovery in 1877, the Stephen Quintet has fascinated astronomers because it represents a galactic intersection where past intergalactic collisions left behind complex debris fields.” Astrophysicist Marina Arnaudova explains: He holds a PhD from the University of Hertfordshire, UK.
“The dynamic activity of this group of galaxies is reawakened as galaxies burst through the group at incredible speeds of over 2 million miles per hour (3.2 million kilometers per hour), creating extremely powerful waves similar to sonic booms from jet fighters. It had a powerful impact.” ”
Stephen’s Quintet is an interesting group of galaxies. Five galaxies appear clustered together in the sky, which is why they were cataloged as such when they were discovered in the 19th century. However, one of the galaxies is not a true member of the cluster at all. It is simply in the same line of sight, only 40 million light-years away from us, and only 250 million distances from the remaining five stars. Light years.
The remaining four galaxies are so close that they become entwined by gravity, engaging in an intricate dance spanning billions of years. The dance created cloud of gas – perhaps stripped from the galaxy and left hanging in intergalactic space, shocked and heated by the push and pull of their interactions.
New observations taken at first light of the William Herschel Telescope’s Extended Area Velocity Probe (weave) A wide-field spectrometer in Spain has revealed new details of the shocked gas. These are the first published results for this device.
These show a galaxy called NGC 7318b slamming into the gas, creating a shock front larger than the Milky Way as it hurtles. And for the first time, the team’s analysis revealed that the gas behind the shock front has a dual nature.
“When a shock travels through a pocket of cold gas, it travels at hypersonic speeds (several times the speed of sound in the intergalactic medium of Stephan’s Quintet), and its power is sufficient to rip electrons from atoms, causing them to become electrically charged. Leaves a glowing trail of gas. Seen in WEAVE.” Arnaudova says.
But as the shock travels through the hot gas, it weakens, compressing the gas and glowing with low-frequency radiation that can be detected by radio telescopes such as the LOFAR array.
Taken together, these results show that the collisions generate a cascade of energy that affects all of the gas phase within the cloud. LOFAR observations date the energized particle population to about 11 million years ago, consistent with the transit time of NGC 7318b.
The Stephen Quintet is a group of great interest to scientists. Such complex interactions in the immediate vicinity of Earth are rare and have been intensely studied. Galaxies like the Milky Way are thought to grow by colliding with and incorporating other galaxies, so any new information is valuable.
The researchers’ results show that these new details may be lurking just out of sight, waiting for the right equipment to reveal them.
“It’s great to see the level of detail revealed here by WEAVE.” says astrophysicist Gavin Dalton. PhD from Oxford University, UK.
“Along with the details of the shocks and unfolding collisions seen in Stephan’s Quintet, these observations reveal what is happening in the formation and evolution of the barely resolved faint galaxies we see at Earth’s limits.” It provides an amazing perspective on current capabilities.
This study Royal Astronomical Society Monthly Notices.
