I was wondering, though… The blue bit at the bottom has kind of a “butterfly” shape reminiscent of NGC 6302 (and others, I’m sure). I was kind of under the impression that these type of structures have one massive construct (black hole, etc) at the center and the butterfly shape is the result of various magnetic and gravitational forces acting on the surrounding gasses (like the polar emissions of some black holes).

Do we know if there is a black hole or some other object at the center of that nebula?

~Zyg

… 9 million light years away. That’s close enough to resolve individual stars …

Is anybody else kinda mindblown by this rather casually emitted statement? Stars aren’t that big, yet our instruments can resolve ‘em at that utterly ridiculous distance. Sometimes one forgets what clever little monkeys we are. And in case that sounds like hubris, we’re pretty unlikely to be the brightest bulb in the bunch …

Well it can merge with one and become part of a spiral I think!

But otherwise, I don’t think so . My understanding is that spiral galaxies form via large clouds of gas collapsing and spinning in a particular way and this mostly happened fairly early on cosmologically and requires a particular set of circumstances. Don’t think any spirals are still forming today and large scale galaxy mergers usually (always?) result in elliptical type galaxies being produced instead – although I could be mistaken here.

Great image and write up.

PS. I was indeed briefly “fooled” or at least wondering about the fuzzy blue cluster of stars at the bottom there being a background galaxy in its own right! Cheers BA.

I do wonder who will be hosting the cannibalization . . . Can someone turn on Deep Thought?

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How the Universe Works is awesome, not as awesome as your hat Phil but still an awesome episode nevertheless.

I feel wonder every time I think about space and whats out there. E-V-E-R-Y single time! The show left me in grand, a glorious state of mind. I needed a break and so I found the show and just sat back and zoned out . . . but because of the show it was more of a zoning in zoning out ITMS. Just left me feeling good and thinking about Kepler and our history and all the other Earths and well you know . . . your basic amazement.

BTW Phil you bet your house in that episode but don’t ever bet the hat

This is incredibly good news! For the longest time, the only types of galaxies with multiple generations of stars in them — that I knew about, at least — were the spiral galaxies like our own.

The gas and dust clouds that form second- and third-generation stars tend to have enough heavy-element enrichment (from the death throes of the biggest and earliest-dying first generation stars) to allow for the formation of large, rocky planets. And large, rocky planets mean potential EARTHLIKE planets.

More kinds of galaxies with potential Earthlike planets means we might have greater odds of meeting green-skinned alien space babes!

Simply amazing.

Can this galaxy eventually evolve into a spiral galaxy?