While there’s a lot we don’t know about space, we’re more or less sure of some things: Planets become spherical, black holes don’t let even light escape, galaxies look more or less alike. However, there are some exceptions to the last of these. One of these exceptions is the galaxy NGC 1156.
The structure of the galaxy, located in the constellation of Aries, 25 million light years from Earth, resembles bright red leaves spread out into space, unlike the galaxies we are used to. The European Space Agency (ESA) describes this situation as “a miracle of galactic morphology”.
Much different from other galaxies
“It resembles a spiral galaxy with its thousands of bright stars, but lacks the characteristic spiral structure.” “It still emits a familiar glow, just like elliptical galaxies and older, red stars at their centre,” ESA explained. used the phrases.
The red flares in the images show regions where star formation is intense. The intense energy of the galaxy also comes from these star clusters. Ionized hydrogen gas is emanating from these young stars into space, giving the stars their red glow reminiscent of clove leaves.
Spiral galaxies usually have older, less luminous stars at the center. Around these stars, a large disk of hot, young stars rotates. NGC 1156, on the other hand, contains older stars at the centre, but its young stars do not form a spiral disk. For this reason, researchers classify this galaxy as a dwarf irregular galaxy.
On the other hand, the galaxy also has a feature that allows it to maintain this shape. NGC 1156 is also called an isolated galaxy. In other words, there is no other galaxy in the distance that can affect its shape.
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