“The first time I saw the results, I immediately thought it looked like Darth Vader’s TIE fighter jet from Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope,” said Purdue University scientist Matthew Lister, one of the authors of a article published in The Astrophysical Journal announcing the findings.
TXS 0128 as assessed by the Very Long Baseline Array. (Credit: NRAO)
TIE Fighters in a new hope.
Lister added, “That was a nice surprise, but performing on different radio frequencies also helped us learn more about how active galaxies can change dramatically on time scales.”The scientific research team, with multiple telescopes and observatories, documented the galaxy from a number of positions. “We see TXS 0128 + 554 at an angle, emphasizing its Star Wars features,” CNET reported.CNET added: “The galaxy has a supermassive black hole in the center and blows out twin jets of energy. The phenomenon of Starfighter became very clear when the Very Long Baseline Array network took a look at radio signals from the galaxy.”
Frankly, a galaxy like a TIE fighter is not the strangest scientific news of recent times, given the reports of a “Galactus” cloud, the alleged recovery of ‘off-world vehicles’, a parallel universe where time running backwards, and scientists reviving 100 million year old life forms under water.
So what do you think of this galaxy far, far away? Let us know in the comments.
