This is NGC 4632, a spiral galaxy located approximately 56 million light years away in the constellation Virgo. Images taken with the Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC), an ultra-wide-field prime focus camera mounted on the Subaru Telescope at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan Hawaii Observatory, and images taken by the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO). ) It is a composite of observation data from Murchison Radio Astronomy Observatory’s radio telescope “ASKAP”.
[▲Spiralgalaxy”NGC4632″anditsringstructurediscoveredbyradiowavesCreatedbycombiningimagesfromtheNationalAstronomicalObservatoryofJapan’sSubaruTelescopeandCSIRO’sradiotelescopeASKAP(Credit:JayanneEnglish(UManitoba)NathanDeg(Queen’sUniversity)&WALLABYSurveyCSIRO/ASKAPNAOJ/SubaruTelescope）】
According to CSIRO, surrounding the blue-glowing NGC 4632 is a ring of cold hydrogen gas captured by ASKAP. This ring structure orbits at a 90 degree angle to NGC 4632’s galactic disk, and was discovered through observations by a research team including Dr. Nathan Deg of Queen’s University (Canada).
Galaxies in which a ring of stars and gas orbits at a large angle to the disk are called “Polar Ring Galaxies,” and such galaxies as NGC 660 in the constellation Pisces are known. I am. According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), all known polar ring galaxies have been discovered through optical observations, and NGC 4632 is one of the first galaxies to be shown to be a polar ring galaxy through radio observations. It is said to be one.
Related: “Polar ring galaxy” with its own ring and large-scale explosion confirmed (May 13, 2019)
According to Professor Bärbel Koribalski of CSIRO, who participated in the research, this research was carried out as part of the observation project “WALLABY Survey” conducted using ASKAP. WALLABY aims to detect and visualize the distribution of gas in hundreds of thousands of galaxies through observations of the entire southern sky, and in this study, we focused on two galaxies out of the 600 that were the subject of small-scale observations in the early stages of the survey. (NGC 4632 and NGC 6156) have been identified as candidates for polar ring galaxies. According to Deg, the new results suggest that 1 to 3 percent of galaxies near the Milky Way may have such rings, but this proportion is lower than expected from optical observations. seems to be higher than the percentage.
According to CSIRO, it is still not well understood why the ring structures of polar ring galaxies exist, and it is possible that they are made of material stripped off from interacting galaxies, or that they are formed by galaxies along the cosmic web
. It is thought that stars may have been born during the process of forming rings from flowing gas. It is expected that if ASKAP’s observations over the next few years discover more rare galaxies like polar ring galaxies, we may be able to obtain clues about the nature of dark matter.
*…A large-scale filament-like structure formed by dark matter, also known as the cosmic spider web.
The image at the beginning was introduced by CSIRO and NASA on September 13, 2023.
Source
Image Credit: Jayanne English (U. Manitoba), Nathan Deg (Queen’s University) & WALLABY Survey, CSIRO/ASKAP, NAOJ/Subaru Telescope CSIRO– Astronomers reveal cosmic ribbon around rare galaxy NASA– NGC 4632: Galaxy with a Hidden Polar Ring Deg et al. – WALLABY pilot survey: the potential polar ring galaxies NGC 4632 and NGC 6156 (MNRAS,arXiv
)
Text/sorae editorial department
