Our Universe is a wonderful place and it’s packed with billions upon billions of galaxies, most of which we haven’t even seen yet. But even from the relatively small amount of galaxies we managed to observe there are some really bizarre ones. Just to think that out there in the vastness of space there are galaxies shaped like jelly fish and the ones that are simply devouring all other galaxies around them. Not to mention the ones those are looking like a huge eye peering right into space! Well, Universe is awesome like that and here are 7 weirdest galaxies you’ve ever seen.
Smiley galaxy
Galaxy SDSS J1038+4849, also known as the Smiley galaxy, looks exactly like that – a cheerful smiling face! The eyes and nose of the smiley are uniquely positioned galaxies, while the curves are created due to gravitational lensing. The light simply distorts around this cluster due to its high density, turning into these liquid-looking curves.
The Cannibal
Galaxies obviously get bored hanging out in space all alone – that’s when they start interacting with other ones, usually smaller defenceless galaxies that up for devouring. Well, it appears our very own Milky Way will collide with Andromeda Galaxy in some 4.5 billion years. It’s hard to tell which galaxy will prevail, but humanity probably won’t be around to see it as our own Sun will get too hot by that time.
Milky Way, the thief
Our good old Milky Way is also a weirdo! Our home galaxy has been snatching neighbouring galaxies, making them part of its own orbit since the beginning of times. There are at least 6 galaxies that we know of that used to orbit Large Magellanic Cloud, a galaxy located about 163,000 light years from us. Now they’re all part of Milky Way!
The grand collision
What happens when four galaxies collide? An abstract, yet beautiful mix of dark matter, gas, and galaxies stretched for over 13 million light years. This galaxy is called MACS J0717 and It’s a truly fascinating sight indeed!
Two dark hearts
A galaxy with two hearts is about as rare as a human with two hearts! Well, maybe not that rare, but it’s definitely not something astronomers see every day. NGC 7674 has not one, but two dark holes at its heart. This probably happened as a result of two galaxies colliding into one
The Mother of Supernovas
Messier 83, also known as simply M83, is bizarre in a couple of ways. It has a weird-looking double nucleus, but that’s nor the weirdest part. M83 is a supersight for supernovas. These beautiful star explosions are actually rare to observe. Yet astronomers have seen six supernovas in the galaxy and detected remnants of 300 more!
Galaxies on a Date
One might think that these two are just another case of galaxies colliding into each other as it often happens in the Universe, but not this time. We can say that galaxies NGC3314a & NGC3314b are simply meeting each other in space on a kind of a date, but still they are separated by millions of light years. We get this amazing view only because they overlap from our vintage point here, on Earth!
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