Peekaboo Galaxy.. Why was it given this name? How was it discovered?

2023-10-28 2023-10-28T11:54:27Z

Arabia Weather - The Peekaboo Galaxy was recently discovered by astronomers. It is a unique and hugely exceptional galaxy. It can be described as a model of a nearby galaxy that closely resembles galaxies in the early, distant universe, which formed rapidly after the Big Bang about 13.8 billion years ago.

Why was the Peekaboo Galaxy named by this name?

It is a small galaxy with a width of only 1,200 light-years. The galaxy was named "Peekaboo" after its sudden appearance over the past 50 to 100 years, when it was hidden behind a fast-moving star that hindered astronomers' ability to detect it.

How was the Peekaboo Galaxy discovered?

The tiny Peekaboo Galaxy was discovered thanks to the collaboration of various telescopes, including NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The Hubble Space Telescope was able to capture a detailed image of this small galaxy, known scientifically as HIPASS J1131–31, despite it being located near a very bright star.

In addition to the Hubble Telescope images, astronomers used the Large South African Telescope to collect detailed spectroscopic data on the stars of the Peekaboo Galaxy. These spectroscopic data indicate that the Peekaboo Galaxy is one of the least chemically rich galaxies in the local universe.

The Peekaboo Galaxy was first discovered as a region containing cold hydrogen more than 20 years ago using the Parkes Murriyang Radio Telescope in Australia, as part of a whole-sky Parkes survey for hydrogen, carried out by Professor Barbel Korybalski, an astronomer at the Australian national science agency CSIRO and participant in the latest A research study on mineral analysis in the Peekaboo Galaxy. Observations in the far-ultraviolet field using NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer space mission showed that the Peekaboo Galaxy is a compact blue dwarf galaxy.

How do astronomers see the Peekaboo Galaxy?

Astronomers describe the Peekaboo Galaxy as an extremely metal-poor galaxy, and in astronomy, the term "metallic" refers to elements heavier than hydrogen and helium. In the ancient universe, heavier elements such as metals were formed by stars over the eons, and this is what led to the formation of the metal-rich universe we live in, including Earth. Hence, Earth is characterized by its richness in metals, while the Peekaboo Galaxy, on the contrary, appears to be an example of a metal-poor galaxy.

Peekaboo caught the attention of astronomers because it is not only an XMP galaxy, a metal-poor galaxy with few old stars, but also because of its close location to Earth. This means that the Peekaboo Galaxy is located only about 20 million light-years away from us. This means they are located about half the distance away from other previously known young XMP galaxies, making them astronomically interesting.