Star-Forming Spiral 110 Million Light-Years Away spotted by NASA's Hubble telescope

The NGC 5486, an irregular spiral galaxy, is suspended amidst a backdrop of faint and faraway galaxies in a photograph captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, a joint project of NASA and ESA. The delicate disc of the galaxy is interlaced with pink wisps of newly-formed stars, which contrast with the diffuse glow emanating from the galaxy's bright centre, reported NASA.

Although this galaxy exhibits vague and sinuous spiral arms, it is situated in close proximity to the much bigger Pinwheel Galaxy, which is a renowned example of a spiral galaxy with well-defined and prominent spiral arms, also known as a 'grand design' spiral galaxy. In 2006, Hubble took a snapshot of the Pinwheel Galaxy, which, at that time, was the most comprehensive and extensive image of a spiral galaxy ever obtained by Hubble.

NGC 5486 is located in the Ursa Major constellation and is situated 110 million light-years away from Earth. This insight is gleaned from a series of Hubble images that investigate the remnants created by Type II supernovae. When colossal stars reach the end of their lifespan, they shed enormous quantities of gas and dust before culminating in colossal supernova detonations.

In 2004, NGC 5486 was the site of a supernova, and stargazers employed Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys to examine the aftermath with the aspiration of gaining a deeper understanding of these explosive occurrences.

Astronomers Detect Never-seen-before Shock Waves Rocking The Web Of The Universe

By combining thousands of images captured by radio telescopes, astronomers have made a groundbreaking discovery revealing that shock waves travel through the cosmic web, a vast assemblage of galaxies, dark matter, and gas that permeates the universe. As per a report in the Science Advances journal, the images displayed a faint glow generated by charged particles as they passed through the magnetic fields present in the cosmic web due to shock waves.

This newfound revelation, according to Science News, will enable space researchers to unravel the enigmas surrounding the enormous magnetic fields. Marcus Brüggen, an astrophysicist at the University of Hamburg in Germany, stated that astronomers "can validate what was previously only predicted by simulations – that these shock waves do exist."

Based on simulations of the cosmic web, shock waves in space arise due to ongoing cosmic events such as gas movement, filament collisions, and gravitational forces. While astronomers have previously observed shock waves in galaxy clusters, these waves were never detected in filaments, as per astronomer Reinout van Weeren of Leiden University in the Netherlands.

“But they should be basically all around the cosmic web," he added. On the other hand, radio astronomer Tessa Vernstrom of Australia's International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research said that a singular shock wave in a filament “would look like nothing, it’d look like noise."