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The NASA / ESA Hubble Space Telescope produced a spectacular image of part of the distorted spiral galaxy NGC 2442 / NGC 2443.
NGC 2442 and NGC 2443 are two parts of a single intermediate spiral galaxy, located approximately 60 million light years away in the southern constellation of Volans.
Commonly known as the Meathook Galaxy, this particular system was discovered by British astronomer John Herschel on December 23, 1834.
Also known as LEDA 21373, ESO 59-8 and IRAS 07365-6924, it has a diameter of 75,000 light years.
It features two dusty spiral arms extending from a pronounced central bar that give it a hook-like appearance, hence its nickname.
Its extremely asymmetric and irregular shape is likely the result of a close encounter with a smaller galaxy.
In March 2015, a Type Ia supernova called SN 2015F was observed in the Meathook galaxy.
It glowed for a while and was easily visible from Earth through even a small telescope.
“The SN 2015F supernova explosion was created by a white dwarf star,” astronomer Hubble said.
“The white dwarf was part of a binary star system and siphoned off the mass of its mate, eventually becoming too greedy and taking more than it could handle.
“This knocked the star off balance and triggered an uncontrollable nuclear fusion which ultimately led to an extremely violent supernova explosion.”
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