NASA shared an enchanting photo of the cosmos-shielded spiral galaxy, a spiral galaxy known for its central rod-shaped structure made up of a large number of stars, on January 15. The space agency under its official Instagram account wrote, “At a distance of 67 million light years, NGC 613 is a stunning example of a barred spiral galaxy. The galaxy as such is easily distinguishable due to its well-defined central bar and long arms, which rotate loosely around the core. ”
According to NASA, NGC 613 was first discovered in 1798 by the German-English astronomer William Herschel. The galaxy was observed by amateur astronomer Victor Buso while he was testing a new camera on a telescope in 2016. His eye caught a curious spot of light from a supernova in the southern constellation of Sculptor, 67 million light-years away, with two stellar cores ejected by a stream of dust. Later observed by NASA and ESA’s Hubble Space Telescope, NGC 613 was labeled by the astronomers as a barred galaxy because of its well-defined central bar and long arms radiating from the core.
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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 surveys show, about two-thirds of spiral galaxies, including our own Milky Way Galaxy, contain a bar,” explained NASA in a press release. The arms of the barred spiral galaxy influence the movements of stars, dust and gas. The Milky Way’s peanut-shaped rods pull the galactic material used for star formation to the nucleic disk, resulting in a lightning strike. According to the school observatory, the barred spiral galaxy would eventually evolve into an elliptical galaxy. Cosmos fans were impressed by the unique structure of the barred spiral galaxy with a stunning ribbon of stars and gas. “There must be life out there in such a vast universe,” someone wrote. “Do we know why some galaxies actually get that shape?” Another asked. “There is probably a galactic civil war going on somewhere in there,” joked the third.
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