The word galaxy has its origin from the word galaxias meaning “milky” referencing the Milky Way. Galaxies are enormous space systems that are made up of gas, stellar objects (neutron stars and brown dwarfs) stars, black holes, nebulae, dark matter. The observable universe probably contains between 50 to 100 billion galaxies, most of which are similar to the Milky Way, and others are somewhat different from our host galaxy. In this post, we will be looking at the strangest galaxies in the known universe.
“Small galaxies” are often galaxies with less than a billion stars, the Sun in the Milky Way galaxy, is just one of a billion stars present our galaxy.
Black Eye Galaxy - Messier 64 (M64)
M64 was first catalogued by the French astronomer Messier, in the 18th century. Also nicknamed as the Evil Eye galaxy, which is as a result of the amazing dark band located around the universe. This dark band absorbs dust, and it’s located at the fore of the galaxy’s shining nucleus, this amazing feature inspired names such as “Evil eye” or “Black Eye”.
The Evil eyed galaxy is quite popular among amateur astronomers, due to its emergence in small telescopes. Formed as the result of two galaxies colliding, which gave birth to an integrated solar system, possessing an abnormal appearance, and strange internal motions.
It is located in the northern constellation Coma Berenices, and it resides 17 million light-years from Earth.
The ISM (Interstellar Medium) of M64 is composed of a pair of counter-rotating disk, that almost possess the same mass. The well-known dust lines of M64 is part of the inner disk. The celestial populace of the galaxy displays no quantifiable counter-rotation
The Porpoise Galaxy
The Porpoise Galaxy by Image credit: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.
What an amazing sight it will be to see two universes side-by-side, that are shaped as a Penguin protecting her an egg. Somewhere in the Hydra constellation, some 177 light years away from Earth it is happening. In the image to the left, you can see the shape NGC 2936 (which by the way, was formerly a spiral galaxy) being warped into a bizarre looking beast as a result of the gravitational pull of NGC 2937, which is an elliptical galaxy. The continual pressure has stretched the Porpoise Galaxy (formally known as NGC 2936) to the point where the nucleus looks like an illuminated eye, and the appendage spin into a beak and a belly, similar to that of a Penguin.
If we choose to look a layer deeper into this seemingly cute relationship between these galaxies, what we will see is really going on is a pure war of forces. NGC 2936 is booming with new stars being formed, while NGC 2937 mainly consists of old Stardust, marked with very little star activities. In reality what is going on between both galaxies is a highly destructive activity where NGC 2937 (the egg) is pulling NGC 2936 (the Penguin) towards itself.
Astronomers believe that over the course of time, maybe some million or billions of years in the future; these two galaxies will eventually merge into one big galaxy.
Sombrero Galaxy
Otherwise known as NGC 4594 or Messier Object 104, the Sombrero galaxy is a spiral galaxy located at the constellation Virgo, which is 31,000,000 Light years away from planet Earth. With an approximate diameter of 50,000 light-years, which is about 30% of the entire Milky Way galaxy. Certain features about the Sombrero catches the eyes easily, and one of them is its features.
Possessing an amazingly bright nucleus, an eminent dust lane in its inclined disk and an abnormally massive central bulge. The massive bulge and the dust lane which is somewhat dark makes the appearance of the galaxy seem like a sombrero. With an apparent magnitude of +8.0, which makes the Sombrero galaxy effortlessly visible when viewed with amateur telescopes.
Many authors consider the Sombrero galaxy to be the brightest galaxy situated within 10 megaparsecs radius of the Milky Way galaxy. The galaxy’s massive bulge, its dark dust lane, and the gigantic black hole are all attributes that make this galaxy really special and strange at the same time.
Southern Pinwheel
Often referred to as the Messier 83, or NGC 5236, the Southern Pinwheel galaxy is situated at the Hydra constellation. It is among the brightest galaxies in the known universe, which makes it visible in the sky when looked at through binoculars. The galaxy’s discovery was made 250 years ago but was considered to be a gas cloud. Later in time, with the emergence of better technology, and more resources that scientist could get a better look at the galaxy where they made new discoveries about its nature.
The lively colours in this expansive whirlpool of purple and pink are the galaxy’s best distinct feature, probably followed by the recurrent explosions of supernovas on the planet, which astronomers keenly observe.
The galaxy currently houses 8 supernovas that are active, which are the remnants of the hundreds or more that were once active in the galaxy. The display of the colour pink in the photo is as a result of star formation going on in the galaxy. This process frees a substantial amount of UV energy, energy which is assimilated by the nearby gas and dust, transforming them into pink colour.
This sight of this galaxy is breath-taking!
Centaurus A
Centaurus A, also known as NGC 5128 can be found in the Centaurus constellation, discovered 192 years ago by James Dunlop, a Scottish astronomer from his home in Parramatta. Centaurus A is believed to be the 5th brightest entity in the sky, which makes it an ideal target for amateur astronomers. At the core of the galaxy, there exists an enormous black hole, with the mass of an estimated 55 million solar masses.
The average person may not think of NGC 5128 as anything remarkable, but when one looks closer, you will find something quite odd. By the standards of galaxies, Centaurus A is a massive galaxy, and galaxies as big as Centaurus A often come in two forms: elliptical and spiral. When these galaxies were looked at by astronomers with the aid of radio imaging, which aided them to squint through the layer of dust. What was unveiled was a spiral concealed underneath.
This revelation is quite strange as galaxies generally possess either spiral, or elliptical, but Centaurus A is the only known elliptical galaxy that possesses spiral arms. In a bid to explain this oddity, several theories have been postulated, one of the most popular ones being that Centaurus A assimilated a spiral galaxy in the past couple of years (millions) ago. This doesn’t fully explain the weird look of the galaxy, as mergers rarely, or never leave the spiral arms of the galaxy unscathed. In summary, no one knows what is going on here.
Reference
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC | Galaxies
LISTVERSE | 10 Bizarre Galaxies in the Universe
ASTRONOMY TREK | Strangest Galaxies in the Universe
