Galaxy crash sparks large spiral
Astronomers have spotted the largest known spiral galaxy - by accident.
A team was looking through data from the Galaxy Evolution Explorer
(Galex) satellite for star-forming regions around a galaxy called NGC
6872.
But they were shocked to see a
vast swathe of ultraviolet light from young stars, indicating that the
galaxy is actually big enough to accommodate five of our Milky Way
galaxies within it.
The find was reported at the American Astronomical Society meeting in the US.
NGC 6872, a galaxy about 212 million light-years away in the
constellation Pavo, was already known to be among the largest spiral
galaxies.
Read at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/
Galaxy crash sparks large spiral
Astronomers have spotted the largest known spiral galaxy - by accident.
A team was looking through data from the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (Galex) satellite for star-forming regions around a galaxy called NGC 6872.
But they were shocked to see a vast swathe of ultraviolet light from young stars, indicating that the galaxy is actually big enough to accommodate five of our Milky Way galaxies within it.
The find was reported at the American Astronomical Society meeting in the US.
NGC 6872, a galaxy about 212 million light-years away in the constellation Pavo, was already known to be among the largest spiral galaxies.
Read at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/
Astronomers have spotted the largest known spiral galaxy - by accident.
A team was looking through data from the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (Galex) satellite for star-forming regions around a galaxy called NGC 6872.
But they were shocked to see a vast swathe of ultraviolet light from young stars, indicating that the galaxy is actually big enough to accommodate five of our Milky Way galaxies within it.
The find was reported at the American Astronomical Society meeting in the US.
NGC 6872, a galaxy about 212 million light-years away in the constellation Pavo, was already known to be among the largest spiral galaxies.
Read at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/
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