[서울신문 나우뉴스]When astronomers observe galaxies, they often engage in a kind of space archaeology.
Basically it is possible to reconstruct the history of a galaxy by examining how it interacts with its nearest galactic neighbors.
One instrument that astronomers can use for this work is the Very Large Telescope (VLT), the largest visible-light telescope in the world. Recently, VST released a trilogy of images depicting some of the distant galaxies needed to uncover the galactic past.
The first image depicts four members of a group of galaxies known as Hixon Cluster 90, located 100 million light-years away in the southern constellation Pisces. Three of the galaxies (NGC 7173, NGC 7176, and spiral NGC 7174) are near the center. They exchange gas with the star, creating intertwined bright halos. A fourth galaxy, NGC 7172, sits alone at the top of the image. The supermassive black hole at the center is hidden under dark dust. The second image depicts ESO 510-G13, a galaxy 150 million light-years away in the constellation Hydra. ESO 510-G13’s central halo and S-shaped disk are clearly visible to the left of center, with points of light representing the stars of the Milky Way. The shape of the disk is unique, and astronomers believe it may be the result of an ancient collision experienced by this galaxy with another galaxy. A pair of more distant galaxies can be seen in the lower right corner of the image. These are about 250 million light years away from us. The third image depicts a galaxy cluster that is 10 times farther away than the other two galaxy clusters. “Abel 1689” is located more than 2.3 billion light-years away towards the constellation Virgo. Abell 1689 actually contains more than 200 galaxies. Their enormous mass warps space-time around them, creating gravitational lenses that distort the light of the galaxy behind them. VST, located at the European Southern Observatory’s Paranal Observatory in Chile, has been observing the sky since 2011. The telescope operator plans to release more images in the coming months.
The European Southern Observatory includes the Very Large Telescope (VLT), which consists of four 8-meter-class astronomical telescopes and four 1.8-meter-class astronomical telescopes. The observation facility is located in the Atacama Desert in Chile, and the headquarters is located near Munich, Germany.
Gwangsik Lee, science columnist joand999@naver.com
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