May 26, 2020

Galaxy R5519 (Image courtesy Tiantian Yuan/Hubble Space Telescope)

An article published in the journal “Nature Astronomy” reports the study of a very rare type of galaxy, called a cosmic ring of fire. A team of researchers led by Dr. Tiantian Yuan from Australia’s ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D) used spectroscopic images obtained at the Keck Observatory in Hawaii and images captured by the Hubble Space Telescope to identify the strange structure of the galaxy officially designated as R5519. It’s an ancient galaxy, and its discovery may require new changes to current galactic formation models.