Astronomers working with the Hubble Space Telescope have shared a satellite image of a nearby galaxy called LEDA 48062, which is only 30 million light-years from our galaxy, effectively making it a cosmic neighbor.
The galaxy was spotted as part of the Every Known Nearby Galaxy project, which aims to use Hubble to study every galaxy within 10 megaparsecs (33 million light-years) of the Milky Way.
According to Digitallands, Hubble scientists said: “By learning about our galactic neighbors, astronomers can determine the types of stars in different galaxies, as well as map the local structure of the universe.”
In this photo, LEDA 48062 is loosely shaped on the right side of the frame. You can also see several other galaxies in the image, including the bar-shaped galaxy highlighted on the left – a lenticular galaxy called UGC 8603.
Galaxies come in three main types: spiral galaxies like our own Milky Way with a central bulge surrounded by a flat sheet with spirally extended arms; Elliptical galaxies are smooth and have a uniform distribution of light that makes them look like ellipses. Lenticular galaxies that lie midway between these two other galaxies with a central bulge but no spiral structure.
There is also a fourth class of galaxies called irregular galaxies that do not have a clear structure.
Often these are galaxies that started out as one of the three types listed, but have been pulled into an irregular shape by gravitational forces.
This can happen when two galaxies merge because the gravitational interactions between them can pull them into strange shapes.