Hubble Captures Rare 100-Million-Light-Year Transitional Galaxy NGC 1266
Updated
Updated · Scientific American · May 19
Hubble Captures Rare 100-Million-Light-Year Transitional Galaxy NGC 1266
3 articles · Updated · Scientific American · May 19
NASA released a new Hubble image of NGC 1266, a lenticular galaxy about 100 million light-years away in Eridanus that sits in a rare transitional class.
Just 1% of nearby galaxies fall into this middle stage, with NGC 1266 showing a spiral-like disk and bright bulge but no spiral arms and little ongoing star formation.
Its relatively young stars suggest a poststarburst past: astronomers think a merger about 500 million years ago triggered a burst of star birth and enlarged the central bulge.
That gas then appears to have fed the galaxy’s supermassive black hole, whose outflows—seen in past observations by Hubble and other telescopes—likely disrupted further star formation.
NASA describes lenticular galaxies like NGC 1266 as an evolutionary bridge between star-forming spirals such as the Milky Way and quieter elliptical galaxies.
Could our Milky Way's supermassive black hole eventually halt all star formation?
Why do some galaxy mergers trigger star birth while others cause galactic death?
How can a central black hole shut down an entire galaxy's star-making factory?