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Credit & Copyright: Hubble Heritage Team
(STScI /
AURA),
C. Conselice
(U. Wisconsin /
STScI)
et al.,
NASA
Explanation:
How did spiral galaxy
ESO
510-13 get bent out of shape?
The disks of many spirals are
thin and flat, but not solid.
Spiral disks are loose conglomerations of
billions of stars and diffuse gas all
gravitationally
orbiting a galaxy center.
A flat disk
is thought to be created by sticky collisions
of large gas clouds early in the
galaxy's formation.
Warped disks are not uncommon, though, and even our own
Milky Way Galaxy is
thought to have
a small warp.
The causes of spiral warps are still being investigated,
but some warps are thought to result
from interactions or even
collisions between galaxies.
ESO 510-13
is about 150 million light years away and about 100,000
light
years across.
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NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: spiral galaxy - warp - disk
Publications with words: spiral galaxy - warp - disk
See also:
- APOD: 2025 August 28 Á Galaxies, Stars, and Dust
- APOD: 2025 August 27 Á WISPIT 2b: Exoplanet Carves Gap in Birth Disk
- APOD: 2025 August 22 Á A Tale of Two Nebulae
- APOD: 2025 August 19 Á Giant Galaxies in Pavo
- APOD: 2025 August 18 Á NGC 1309: A Useful Spiral Galaxy
- APOD: 2025 July 4 Á NGC 6946 and NGC 6939
- APOD: 2025 June 30 Á NGC 4651: The Umbrella Galaxy