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On January 15, NASA shared a haunting photo of the Barred Spiral Galaxy of the Cosmos, a spiral galaxy known for its central bar-shaped structure that is made up of a myriad of stars. Taking its official name on Instagram, the space agency wrote, “At a distance of 67 million light years, NGC 613 is an astonishing example of a barred spiral galaxy. It is easy to distinguish the galaxy as such due to its well-defined central bar and long arms, which wrap loosely around the core.
According to NASA, the galaxy NGC 613 was first discovered in 1798 by the German-English astronomer William Herschel. The galaxy was observed by amateur astronomer Victor Buso while testing a new camera on a telescope in 2016. A curious point of light caught his attention that came from a supernova in the sculptor’s southern constellation at 67 million light years with two star cores that were emitted apart by a stream of dust. Observed later by NASA and ESA’s Hubble Space Telescope, NGC 613 was dubbed a barred galaxy by astronomers because of its well-defined center bar and long arms that radiated out of the nucleus.
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[Barred spiral galaxy NGC 613 was obtained with the FORS1 and FORS2 multi-mode instruments. Credit: ESO]
Evolves into an elliptical galaxy
“As polls have revealed, about two-thirds of spiral galaxies, including our own Milky Way galaxy, contain a bar,” NASA said in a statement. The arms of the barred spiral galaxy influence the movements of stars, dust and gases. Galaxy’s peanut-shaped bars pull the galactic material used for star formation into the nucleic disc, resulting in a burst of lightning. The barred spiral galaxy would eventually evolve into an elliptical galaxy, according to the school’s observatory. Lovers of the cosmos were impressed by the unique structure of the barred spiral galaxy with a magnificent ribbon of stars and gases. “There must be life in such a vast universe,” one wrote. “Do we know why some galaxies take this shape?” Another asked. “There’s probably a galactic civil war going on somewhere in there,” the third joked.
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