The Gemini Observatory has two telescopes that are 26.6 feet in size. One is the Gemini North in Hawaii and the other is the Gemini South in Chile. Both telescopes are responsible for remarkable developments, as they are fully covered from both the northern and southern skies.
The Gemini telescopes are by far the largest and one of the most advanced telescopes known to astronomers. In a recent development, the Gemini North, to be exact, set its vision nearly 100 million light years from here and attempted to capture a spectacle. Read the article below to know all about it.
The image captured by the Gemini North Telescope was of a galaxy called NGC 772, as reported by News9live† The galaxy is said to be located in the constellation Aires. The image provides sufficient detail, the NGC 772 shows an overdeveloped spiral arm of the galaxy. After careful examination of the image, researchers confirmed that the spiral arm extending to the left of the image was due to one of its neighbors.
It is important to note here that the NGC 772 is devoid of a bright central bar exhibited, for example, by the Andromeda or the Milky Way. The central bars are nothing but huge, linear structures made of gas, dust and countless stars.
Reason for the extra arm?
Researchers have claimed that the outstretched arm, which is rather massive, is due to a disobedient neighbor to the NGC 772 galaxy. That was the dwarf and elliptical galaxy NGC 770. The tidal interactions observed between NGC 772 and NGC 770 have clouded and pushed one of the arms of the spiral galaxy, which is also why it looks like a loop.
NGC 772 is listed as Arp 78.
While NGC 772’s anomalies overwhelm this image, a number of galaxies are also hiding behind it. The streaks and smudges covering the image are distant galaxies.