The arms churn out stars at a rate 30 times higher than our galaxy’s neighbors, but these high rates are comparable to other star-forming clumps in the ancient universe. With a diameter of 52,000 light-years, the spiral is roughly half the size of the Milky Way. Measurements made with Keck’s OSIRIS spectrograph confirm that the arms are indeed rotating around a central bulge, so the apparent spiral shape doesn’t result from a chance alignment of two disk-shaped galaxies, the study’s authors conclude in the July 19th Nature.īy all appearances, BX442 is a pretty normal galaxy. So when astronomers found a grand-design spiral gleaming from the universe when it was only 3 billion years old, they were pleasantly shocked.ĭespite its great distance, the spiral design of the galaxy Q2343-BX442 is clear in observations by the Hubble Space Telescope and the Keck II Telescope in Hawaii. But if your telescope reached a bit further than our cosmic backyard, you would find that these elegant spiral disks gradually give way to clumpy, irregularly shaped galaxies.

Messier objects M51, M81, and M101 all come to mind - perhaps M101 especially because of the supernova that exploded there last year. Take a look through your telescope at our local universe, and you’ll find lots of beautiful, grand-design spirals. The close passage of the dwarf companion galaxy to the upper left may have triggered the formation of spiral arms.ĭunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics/Joe Bergeron An artist's illustration of the grand design spiral BX442 that lives in a universe only 3 billions years old.

Spiral galaxy facts