The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is now busy studying new space materials as the Hubble Telescope spots lonely galaxy NGC 6503. The star system has been noticed on many other occasions before, but the recent images shed further light on the structure and evolution of the island universe.
The official authority for space and aeronautics affairs has first spotted the lonely galaxy located at the edge of the universe several years ago. The star group received the catalogue name NGC 6503 and scientists have been busy ever since to find out more details about its activity.
Much to their discontent, the majority of the pictures that were sent by the Hubble Telescope on Earth were not clear enough to enable researchers to make thorough analyses. The galaxy is located in a very remote space area, more precisely in the vicinity of the Local Void.
The space region where the lonely galaxy has been located was nicknamed the Local Void precisely because the medium is not star-friendly. Scientists have estimated that the region stretches on an area of 150 light-years and it contains important stars and celestial bodies.
NGC 6503 is one of the star formations that has captured the attention of the scientists due to its particularities. Previous images have shown that the distant island universe is 30,000 light years long, that is three times smaller than the overall size of the Milky Way.
The fact that the galaxy is located at around 18 million light-years from Earth is the main reason why researchers find it hard to gather data about it. Nevertheless, the pictures that the Hubble telescope has sent this week have helped scientists get a closer view of some of the celestial bodies existing inside the star formation.
It appears that there are many new stars getting formed at present within the NGC 6503 galaxy. They are represented by small blue dots on Hubble’s recent pictures. NASA experts have also stated that the galaxy contains large volumes of gas, which appear as red patches in images.
In spite of the interesting information related to star formation processes noticeable inside the lonely galaxy, scientists think the black hole in the center is much more interesting to observe. Based on experts’ observations, the black hole is only fed by gas, which is why NGC 6503 is not as bright as other galaxies.
NASA plans to attribute more attention to this Local Void region and the island universes that co-exist inside it in the future. The Hubble telescope will be replaced by a more advanced space gear, namely the James Webb Space Telescope in 2020 when the 25-year-old space craft will end its mission in the universe.
Image Source: Sci-News
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