Hubble Telescope spots solitary dwarf galaxy UGC 4879

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has uncovered a mysterious solitary dwarf galaxy known as UGC 4879.
The galaxy is smaller and messier than its cosmic cousins and lacks the majestic swirl of a spiral or the coherence of an elliptical.
Key findings

• The galaxy UGC 4879 is very isolated and consists of a scattered drizzle of stars.
• It about 2.3 million light years away from its closest neighbour, Leo A which is about the same distance as that between our Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy.
• The galaxy has not interacted with any of surrounding galaxies that makes it an ideal laboratory for astronomers to study star formation by interactions with other galaxies.
• The scientific studies of this solitary galaxy UGC 4879 will provide ample scientific study material for astronomers looking to understand the complex mysteries of star birth throughout the universe.
• It will especially help astronomers to study amount of star formation in the first 4 billion years after the Big Bang and followed by a strange 9 billion-year lull in star formation.

About Hubble Space Telescope (HST)

• HST was launched in 1990 as an international cooperation space project between NASA and European Space Agency.
• It is managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Its science operations are conducted by Baltimore based Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI).
• It is located in low Earth orbit outside the distortion of Earth’s atmosphere that allows it to take extremely high-resolution images.

Month: Current Affairs - June, 2016