Charon, Moon Of Pluto, Observed By NASA's New Horizons Probe Just Before Closest Approach On This Day

Robert McCall

Boo-tiful Ring Galaxies

A ghoulish secret lurks within each of these gorgeous galaxies. Their rings are dotted with stellar graveyards!

These objects are called ring galaxies, and scientists think most of them form in monster-sized crashes. Not just any galaxy collision will do the trick, though. To produce the treat of a ring, a smaller galaxy needs to ram through the center of a larger galaxy at just the perfect angle.

The collision causes ripples that disturb both galaxies. The gravitational shock causes dust, gas, and stars in the larger galaxy’s disk to rush outward. As this ring of material plows out from the galaxy’s center, gas clouds collide and trigger the birth of new stars.

In visible light, the blue areas in the galaxies’ rings show us where young, hot stars are growing up. Faint, pink regions around the ring mark stellar nurseries where even younger stars set hydrogen gas aglow.

The newborn stars come in a mix of sizes, from smaller ones like our Sun all the way up to huge stars with tens of times the Sun’s mass. And those massive stars live large!

While a star like our Sun will last many billions of years before running out of fuel, larger stars burn much brighter and faster. After just a few million years, the largest stars explode as supernovae. When massive stars die, they leave behind a stellar corpse, either a neutron star or black hole.

When we turn our X-ray telescopes to these ring galaxies, we see telltale signs of stellar remnants dotted throughout their ghostly circles. The purple dots in the X-ray image above are neutron stars or black holes that are siphoning off gas from a companion star, like a vampire. The gas reinvigorates stellar corpses, which heat up and emit X-rays. These gas-thirsty remains are beacons lighting the way to stellar graveyards.

Spiral galaxies — like our home galaxy, the Milky Way — have curved arms that appear to sweep out around a bright center. The dust and gas in those spiral arms press together, causing cycles of star formation that result in a more even mix of new stars and stellar corpses scattered throughout our galaxy. No creepy ring of stellar corpses here!  

To visit some other eerie places in the universe, check out the latest additions to the Galaxy of Horrors poster series and follow NASA Universe on Twitter and Facebook for news about black holes, neutron stars, galaxies, and all the amazing objects outside our solar system.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

A 1979 work by space artist Don Dixon shows dwarf planet Pluto as seen from one of its moons. (Cosmographica)

USS Harry S. Truman Strike Group Flyover

The U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, the Blue Angels, flew over Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75), on a return transit to Naval Air Station Pensacola following their annual flight over the U.S. Naval Academy commissioning ceremony May 20, 2020. The Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group (HSTCSG) remains at sea in the Atlantic as a certified carrier strike group force ready for tasking in order to protect the crew from the risks posed by COVID-19, following their successful deployment to the U.S. 5th and 6th Fleet areas of operation. (U.S. Navy video by Petty Officer 2nd Class Cody Hendrix)            

What we are doing while you sleep

SSTO Orbital Lander

Movie: Interstellar UI Design: Double Negative

‘distant.03′

Cosmic Debris.

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Preparing for the approach

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