Cue the Star Wars Imperial March. We have an active galaxy that looks like it belongs in Darth Vader's fleet. Fortunately, it is 500 million light-years away in the Cassiopeia constellation and we don't need to engage it in space dogfight.
NASA took a new look at the galaxy TXS 0128 + 554 on Tuesday, highlighting its resemblance to a Star Wars TIE fighter.
The galaxy has a supermassive black hole in its center and emits two beams of energy. The Starfighter's appearance became very clear when the Very Long Baseline Array network examined the radio signals emanating from the galaxy. Certain frequencies made it appear as if it should dock with the Death Star anytime now.
A research team studying the galaxy published an article in the Astrophysical Journal on Tuesday detailing the results.
The team used observations from a variety of sources, including NASA's Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory, to create a more complete picture of the galaxy. We see TXS 0128 + 554 at an angle that highlights Star Wars features.
What qualifies TXS 0128 as an "active" galaxy is the amount of extra light it emits, more than what its stars can deliver on their own.
"The extra energy from an active galaxy includes excess radio, x-ray and gamma-ray light," NASA said in a press release. "Scientists believe that this emission comes from regions near its central black hole, where a swirling disk of gas and dust collects and heats due to gravitational and frictional forces."
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Lead author Mathew Lister, an astronomer at Purdue University, found the TIE fighter look "a fun surprise, but its appearance on different radio frequencies also helped us learn more about how active galaxies can change dramatically on ten time scales. "
The galaxy goes well with the tiny pantheon of Star Wars lookalikes in space, including Saturn's "Death Star Moon" Mimas and a Jabba-the-Hutt-shaped rock on Mars. The universe needs to strengthen and represent the Jedi side so we can maintain the balance in power.
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