Why is this galaxy so discombobulated? Usually, galaxies this topsy-turvy [ http://video.google…] result from a recent collision with a neighboring galaxy. Spiral galaxy [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] NGC 1313, however, appears to be alone. Brightly lit with new and blue massive stars, star formation appears so rampant in NGC 1313 [ http://www.eso.org/…] that it has been labeled a starburst galaxy [ http://en.wikipedia…]. Strange features of NGC 1313 [ http://www.aao.gov.…] include that its spiral arms are lopsided and its rotational axis is not at the center of the nuclear bar. Pictured above [ http://www.eso.org/…], NGC 1313 spans about 50,000 light years [ http://chandra.harv…] and lies only about 15 million light years away toward the constellation [ http://en.wikipedia…] of Reticulum [ http://en.wikipedia…]. Continued numerical modeling [ http://ifa.hawaii.e…] of galaxies like NGC 1313 might shed some light on its unusual nature.
Explanation
Why is this galaxy so discombobulated? Usually, galaxies this topsy-turvy [ http://video.google…] result from a recent collision with a neighboring galaxy. Spiral galaxy [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] NGC 1313, however, appears to be alone. Brightly lit with new and blue massive stars, star formation appears so rampant in NGC 1313 [ http://www.eso.org/…] that it has been labeled a starburst galaxy [ http://en.wikipedia…]. Strange features of NGC 1313 [ http://www.aao.gov.…] include that its spiral arms are lopsided and its rotational axis is not at the center of the nuclear bar. Pictured above [ http://www.eso.org/…], NGC 1313 spans about 50,000 light years [ http://chandra.harv…] and lies only about 15 million light years away toward the constellation [ http://en.wikipedia…] of Reticulum [ http://en.wikipedia…]. Continued numerical modeling [ http://ifa.hawaii.e…] of galaxies like NGC 1313 might shed some light on its unusual nature.
