‘Frankenstein’ Galaxy Discovered, Why Did It Surprise Astronomers?

A rare "Frankenstein" galaxy has been reportedly discovered to be younger on the inside than on its outside. The galaxy formed in parts with the spare parts of other galaxies according to scientists. The most interior parts of the galaxy were created first with the oldest stars, and eventually the galaxy's territory spread outwards. Called UGC 1382, the galaxy is located around 250 million light years away from us and is seven times the size of the Milky Way, measuring 718,000 light-years across.

Bizarre, enormous 'Frankenstein' galaxy possibly formed from parts of other galaxies: https://t.co/ILInkBPWaW pic.twitter.com/w6jzMvgMQz

— NASA (@NASA) July 11, 2016

"The centre of UGC 1382 is actually younger than the spiral disk surrounding it. It's old on the outside and young on the inside. This is like finding a tree whose inner growth rings are younger than the outer rings," said Mark Seibert, study author. Interestingly, the galaxy is a delicate one and even the slightest disturbance from a nearby galaxy can make it crumble away, according to a report. However, UGC 1382 has survived because it is located in one of the "quiet little suburban neighborhoods" of the universe, and therefore the humdrum of crowded areas don't disturb it.

According to scientists, the two different parts of the galaxy formed independently of each other and then they combined to form one galaxy, therefore it has a younger core. Incidentally it was by accident that the researching team, who were actually working on usual elliptical galaxies, discovered that the UGC 1382 did not in fact fall in the same category, and were surprised by the finding. The galaxy was not a typical, old galaxy and in addition it was 10 times bigger than previously estimated. Furthermore, unlike most other galaxies, its innermost region was found to be younger than the areas on the outside and periphery.

The researchers observed that the galaxy had spiral arms that extended far beyond its territory, and such spiral arms are not the characteristics of an elliptical galaxy. The scientists, therefore, decided to investigate the rare galaxy further to throw more light on the formation of galaxies on a larger scale. The discovery about the "Frankenstein' galaxy, was made possible with data and images of galaxies in ultraviolet light availed from numerous observatories in US, such as NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) among others.