Produced by: Tarun Mishra Designed by: Manoj Kumar
A galaxy from Stephan’s Quintet, known as NGC 7318b, has been observed colliding with its neighbouring galaxies at an extraordinary speed of 3.2 million kilometres per hour.
This event was captured using the WEAVE spectrograph on the William Herschel Telescope in La Palma, Spain, offering new insights into galactic interactions.
The collision occurred in Stephan’s Quintet, a group of five galaxies first discovered nearly 150 years ago, which has become a focal point for studying galactic dynamics.
The collision triggered a massive shockwave, described as resembling a sonic boom, reactivating debris fields from earlier galactic interactions within the quintet.
WEAVE data revealed the shockwave’s effects: as it passed through cold gas, it ionized the atoms, creating glowing charged gas trails, while it compressed hot gas, emitting radio waves detectable by telescopes like LOFAR.
This cosmic event provides astronomers with a unique opportunity to study the effects of galactic collisions on star formation and galaxy evolution.
Stephan’s Quintet serves as an ideal natural lab, helping scientists analyze the impact of such collisions on galaxies over billions of years, including implications for the Milky Way’s history.
The results of this observation were detailed in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, contributing to ongoing research into the dynamic interactions of galaxies.