While Star Wars is a popular franchise known around the world, it seems that outer space is also paying respect to the iconic movie series. According to a recent scientific discovery, there is a galaxy far, far away that resembles one of the space ships used in the Star Wars movies.
Star Wars has spanned many different types of media since George Lucas introduced it the world. From tabletop and video games to books and movies, the franchise has gained a notable popularity that has made it famous around the world. Many scientists have been influenced by the series, and one of these researchers likened a newly-discovered galaxy to one of the imperial fighters that supported Darth Vader.
Purdue University scientist Matthew Lister is one of the authors on a paper published in The Astrophysical Journal that revealed the existence of this particular galaxy. When talking about this discovery, Lister said that he immediately though of "Darth Vader's TIE fighter spacecraft from Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope" when he saw the galaxy for the first time.
This TIE fighter-esque galaxy is currently active in the Cassiopeia constellation, which is 500 million light-years from where all of the known Star Wars fans reside. Lister said that the galaxy, which was designated as TXS 0128+554, looks so much like the iconic fictional spacecraft due to the angle that the scientists were viewing it from. To view the galaxy, the scientists observed the radio frequencies that the galaxy was emitting, and the images revealed interesting activity in the large star cluster.
According to the different radio waves that the scientists viewed, the galaxy contains a supermassive black hole. This black hole is currently shooting out two beams of energy. Not only is the galaxy shaped like a Star Wars TIE fighter, but it apparently fires plasma similarly too. Lister says that this find allowed scientists to learn more about these active galaxies and their radio frequencies at decade time scales, so the Star Wars-like galaxy is advancing researchers' work as they continue to look for new galaxies.
While many Star Wars fans may get a kick out of this unique galaxy, it's not the only geeky reference in recent science. Some researchers are currently attempting to use a method known as the "PAC-MAN" technique to combat the coronavirus. With video games and other media franchises finding their way into science, it is exciting to see what other possible discoveries await humanity in the future.
Source: The Astrophysical Journal