Questions from aliens? A giant question mark appears 1470 light-years away from Earth! Expert: Or images of two galaxies merging | Universe | Question mark
When humans explore the answers to the mysteries of the universe, sometimes more questions arise, which can also be a "real question mark.".
On July 26th local time, the James Webb Space Telescope team of the European Space Agency released a latest image that captured two closely connected stars, Herbig Harrow 46/47, located in the constellation Vela, approximately 1470 light-years away from Earth.
▲ Latest images released by JWST team
This is the most detailed observation so far of these two young stars that are forming. The image shows that the Herbig Harrow 46/47 star is surrounded by a large, dusty disk of matter, which will be slowly consumed by the two stars over the millions of years of growth, helping them grow. The JWST team pointed out that this is an important research object because they are relatively young, only a few thousand years old, and the complete formation of stars takes millions of years. Such a goal can enable researchers to gain a deeper understanding of how stars accumulate mass over time.
However, this is not the only stunning scene in this image, as someone accidentally discovered a giant cosmic object resembling a question mark after zooming in on the background of this deep space image. Is this unexpected question mark a cosmic message from extraterrestrial and post human civilizations?
▲ Enlarge the image
At present, researchers have not yet figured out what this question mark shaped object is. A representative from the Baltimore Space Telescope Scientific Research Institute, responsible for managing the scientific operations of the Weber Space Telescope, said that the question mark could be a distant galaxy or a pair of interacting galaxies, and gravity may manipulate the structure of these galaxies, resulting in distorted question mark shapes.
According to STScI, regardless of what the red object in the image is, this is the first time astronomers have turned their attention to this distant celestial body, which may be far beyond the boundaries of the Milky Way. Even more exciting is that this may also be the first time astronomers have seen a cosmic question mark.
Matt Kaplan, assistant professor of physics at Illinois State University, said that this unique cosmic question mark may be that two galaxies are merging. He believes that the upper half of the question mark is part of a larger galaxy that is being disrupted by tides. In other words, due to gravity, larger galaxies are being pulled apart or distorted. But he doesn't rule out many other possibilities.
