December 30, 2016

IRAS 16399-0937 (Image ESA/Hubble & NASA. Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt (geckzilla))

An image obtained thanks to observations made by the Hubble Space Telescope shows a very peculiar galaxy. Called IRAS 16399-0937, it’s a megamaser, which is an astronomical maser that emits microwaves with an intensity about a hundred million times greater than that of astronomical masers found in galaxies like the Milky Way. That’s because virtually all the galaxy is a maser.