Hubble captures a suspected galaxy encounter

UGC 3912 is classed as a spiral galaxy, however you would not realize it from this detailed NASA Hubble House Telescope picture. UGC 3912’s distorted form is often indicative of a gravitational encounter with one other galaxy. When galaxies work together—both brush up in opposition to one another’s gravitational fields and even collide—their stars, dust, and gasoline might be pulled into new paths. UGC 3912 may need as soon as been an organized-looking spiral, nevertheless it appears prefer it’s been smudged off form by an enormous thumb.

Fortuitously, when galaxies work together, the person stars and objects that orbit them stay entire despite the fact that their orbits can change so dramatically that your complete galaxy’s form is altered. That is as a result of the distances between stars in galaxies are so huge that they do not crash into each other, simply proceed serenely alongside their new orbits.

Astronomers are finding out UGC 3912 as a part of an investigation into supernovae exercise—when stars at the least eight instances bigger than our sun explode on the finish of their lives. Hubble is inspecting one of many a number of forms of supernovae, a hydrogen-rich phenomenon referred to as Kind II. Although ample Kind II supernovae have been noticed, they exhibit monumental variety of their brightness and spectroscopy and are usually not effectively understood.