The Universe is unimaginably huge and diverse, but even so, you don’t hear every day about galaxies resembling snakes. It’s the case of NGC 1087, a beautiful galaxy located many solar systems away from us that amazed astronomers in charge of the ALMA observatory from Chile.
NGC 1087 is located 80 million light-years away from us, and it’s one of those galaxies that we would never get tired of taking pictures of. Its shape almost makes you mad that you abandoned your dream of becoming an astronaut when you were little.
Behold the new image of the NGC 1087 galaxy:
This striking image of NGC 1087 was recently captured by the ALMA observatory in Chile.https://t.co/lvu3zni1x0#TECH #Technology #technews #programming #software
— HATINC 🇵🇸 (@HatProgrammers) June 12, 2022
We’re talking about a spiral galaxy located in the constellation Cetus. This constellation is also sometimes called ‘the whale’ in English. The designation comes from Greek mythology, referring to a sea monster that Perseus and Heracles wanted to kill.
Researchers explained as sci-news.com quotes:
The bluish regions in the background reveal the pattern of older, already formed stars, imaged by the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope.
We are making high-resolution observations of nearby galaxies with telescopes operating across a wide range of wavelengths.
Another important statement says as the same source quotes:
Different wavelengths tell us about the physical properties of stars, gas and dust within galaxies, and by comparing them we are able to study what activates, boosts or hinders the birth of new stars.
The Cetus constellation has 14 main stars, 88 Flamsteed stars, and 23 stars discovered to have exoplanets.
ALMA (the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) observatory consists of 66 radio telescopes distributed in the Atacama Desert from the northern part of Chile. These powerful gears focus on electromagnetic radiation at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths.
The ALMA Observatory also has an altitude of over 5 kilometers – 5,058.7 meters, to be more precise.
