Tag: Gemini

Astronomers used the Gemini South telescope to capture merging spiral galaxies that resemble cosmic cotton candy of sorts, or more specifically, NGC 7727, a galaxy nestled in the constellation of Aquarius about 90 million light-years from the Milky Way. The Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) mounted on the Gemini South telescope in Chile was used to observe the vast swirling bands of interstellar dust and gas around the merging cores of the progenitor galaxies.

What really stands out about NGC 7727 is its twin galactic nuclei, each of which features a supermassive black hole. Astronomers believe that the galaxy started out as a pair of spiral galaxies that became entangled in a celestial dance approximately 1-billion years ago. It spewed out stars and nebula before they were pulled back together due to the black holes’ gravity, resulting in the image you see here. Eventually, NGC 7727 will become an elliptical galaxy consisting of older stars and very little star formation, just like Messier 87.

Because the galaxy is still reeling from the impact, most of the tendrils we see are ablaze with bright young stars and active stellar nurseries. In fact, about 23 objects found in this system are considered candidates for young globular clusters. These collections of stars often form in areas where star formation is higher than usual and are especially common in interacting galaxies as we see here,” said the NOIRLab.

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