Hubble notices a "smiling face" in a host of distant galaxies

Hubble is back in action and has recently set eyes on a configuration of galaxies that look like a smiling face.

There, in the immensity of space, something smiles at the Hubble telescope.

The probe has recently imaged a vast expanse of sky that is home to a distant galactic cluster. There, in the middle of a busy crowd of galaxies, Hubble met a friendly face.

While he was investigating the galactic cluster known as SDSS J0952 + 3434, Hubble spotted a very happy galaxy formation resembling a smiling face, according to a report CNet.

"The Hubble telescope finally proves that when we look at space, the galaxy sometimes smiles," notes the media.

The image of the "smiling face" was captured by Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3, or WFC3. Unveiled by NASA on Friday, the snapshot reveals that galaxy formation looks suspiciously like two bright eyes and a smiling mouth.

"Two yellow-hued blobs are hanging on top of an arc of light," NASA officials said. "The lower galaxy, arc-shaped, has the characteristic shape of a gravitational lens galaxy: its light is passed near a massive object en route to us, which deforms it and is deformed. "

According to the space agency, Hubble took the photo while searching the galactic group in search of newborn stars.

"Hubble captured this image in order to understand how new stars are born in the cosmos. WFC3 is able to visualize distant galaxies with unprecedented resolution – high enough to locate and study the star formation regions that are found there, "NASA said.

The process from which stars emerge begins with a huge cloud of gas housed in a stellar nursery.

"By analyzing the brightness, size and rate of formation of different stellar nurseries, scientists hope to learn about the processes that can lead to the formation of a newborn star," NASA said.

Earlier this week, the space agency released another intriguing Hubble photo of a star-forming region, this time in the Serpens Nebula, 1,300 light-years away from Earth.

The image was posted on the NASA website on Halloween and featured a mysterious phenomenon described as a "bat shadow", visible in the upper right of the photo.

The so-called "bat-shadow" is essentially a feature projected by one of the bright stars of the nebula. Nicknamed HBC 672, the bright star illuminates its environment and casts its own shadow on the surrounding debris ring.

This ring is an accumulation of dust, rocks and ice that gravitates around the star and would otherwise go unnoticed, as it is too small and too far to be seen, even by Hubble.

"It's an analogue of what the solar system looked like when it was only 1 or 2 million years ago," commented astronomer Klaus Pontoppidan, a researcher. at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland. "For all we know, the solar system has already created a shadow like this."

Hubble has only recently returned as a result of a gyroscope problem that caused it to close in orbit in early October. As the Inquisitr Previously, NASA replaced the failed equipment with a spare part, but the emergency gyroscope also showed signs of malfunction.

Nevertheless, Hubble has managed to put an end to the problems and is now back in action and ready to amaze us with more amazing snapshots of the cosmos.