(STUDY FINDS) -- AUSTRALIA — Here’s some astronomical news that surely would have put a smile on Johnny Cash’s face. Australian researchers have snapped an image of a galaxy as it existed 11 billion years ago, and it looks like a burning ring of fire.
This burning galaxy has roughly the same mass as the Milky Way, but is circular with a hole in the middle. Beyond just looking cool, these images are very significant; this galaxy’s discovery and appearance calls into question current accepted theories regarding how and when galactic structures came to be and how they evolved.
“It is a very curious object that we’ve never seen before,” says lead researcher Dr Tiantian Yuan, from Australia’s ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D), in a release. “It looks strange and familiar at the same time.”
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