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An elliptical galaxy NGC 3640 is located just above its small galactic neighbor NGC 3641. , Credit: ESO/INAF/M. Mirable Et Al./R. Ragusa et al.
An unusual elliptical galaxy with the history of absorbing small galaxies approaches its next goal.
New images of the very large binoculars (VLT) in the European Southern Observatory (ESO) Paranal Observatory suggests that the galaxy known as NGC 3640 may soon merge with a small galactic partner. Located 88 million light-year from the Earth, the NGC 3640 belongs to a group of galaxies that are in size and shape, including their own unusual oval or egg shapes.
VLT images showed that NGC 3640 has eaten other galaxies in the last several billion years and a small neighbor, known as NGC 3641, is now in its way. The NGC is located just below 3640, in the recent image, the NGC 3641 may eventually be the next food of the large galaxy.
ESO officials said in a statement with a new image, “In their very long lifetime, galaxies change. As they grow through space, they can steal gas and stars from other galaxies, or even That can merge with them. ” “After these events, the galaxies can be distorted, as is exemplary by the Misshap NGC 3640 and spreading around it.”
As two galaxies go to each other, their gravitational bridges become strongly stronger, eventually they collide and merge into the same, large galaxy and merge. This, in turn, disrupts the basic structures of both galaxies.
Fortunately, the NGC 3641 may still have some time before it is consumed by its big neighbor. Recently VLT images have not shown any indication of NGC 3641, which are going to the galaxy, the suggestion of NGC 3640 is not yet enough to create a threat.
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Using the new VLT images, the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics was able to pass the past of NGC 3640. A collision between the two galaxies leaves a “mark” on the living cosmic body, with some of the first stars made within the original galaxy.
Therefore, these stars serve as the “fossil marker” of the past of the original galaxy, which the team has determined the NGC 3640 that has already attached other galaxies, according to the statement.
His findings were published on 5 November 2024 in the magazine Astronomy and Astrophysics.
