NASA's image of the Galactic Cluster Fusion strangely resembles the USS Enterprise

The current knowledge of humanity on physics may suggest that it is impossible to travel faster than light, but Earth scientists can still observe what is happening in places far too far for a real visit (and usually in the distant past). One of them is a galactic collision which, at least from our planetary point of view, looks very much like a ship where no man has ever been before.

NASA released the above composite image of the Abell 1033 galaxy cluster at about 1.62 billion light-years this week, showing gas streaks that appear to be arranged in form. of Star TrekUSS Enterprise. NASA wrote that the image had been captured by the Chandra X-ray Observatory, an X-ray telescope detecting overheated gases, as well as the low-frequency network, which detects radio broadcasts.

The image may seem calm, but it is the result of a cosmic phenomenon releasing huge amounts of energy. Clusters of galaxies are sets of galaxies that are the largest known entities to be held together by gravitational forces, containing both the galaxies themselves and a much larger amount of superheated gas. According to NASA, Abell 1033 is actually two clusters of galaxies that are snapping one on the other, producing "turbulence and shock waves". NASA added that the two clusters were interacting with a supermassive black hole, producing high-speed particle jets. which appear as radio broadcasts:

In Abell 1033, the collision interacted with another energetic cosmic process: the production of high velocity particle jets by the spiral material in a supermassive black hole, in this case that located in a galaxy of one of the groups . These jets are revealed by radio broadcast at the left and right sides of the image. The radio emission is produced by spiral electrons around the magnetic field lines, a process called synchrotron emission.

The electrons in the jets move very close to the speed of light. While the galaxy and its black hole were moving towards the lower part of the image, the right jet was slowing down when it was colliding with hot gas from the other group of galaxies. The left jet did not slow down as it encountered much less hot gas, which gave the jets a deformed appearance rather than the straight line generally seen.

NASA added that the group's radio broadcasts would normally lose a lot of their energy as they radiated, becoming undetectable, although "the very extensive radio emissions observed in Abell 1033, extending about 500 000 light-years, imply the presence of energetic electrons in larger quantities and with energies higher than previously thought:

In addition to the spaceship-shaped objects, the radio emission in the image consists of the shorter jets of another galaxy (called "short jets") and a "phoenix radio" consisting of a cloud of electrons that faded into radio broadcast but was then revitalized. shock waves compressed the cloud. As we reported in 2015, the cloud shone again at radio frequencies.

Researchers from the University of Leiden, the Institute of Radio Astronomy, the University of Hamburg and the Max Planck Institute of Astrophysics have published their findings in Science Advances.