this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2023
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James Web telescope finds giant question mark galaxy in deep space.

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[–] eagleeyedtiger@lemmy.nz 33 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I enjoy the jokes, but has anyone given an explanation of what it likely is?

Seems like merging galaxies. It’s too far away to be a single star being eaten by a companion. (It’d have the six-sided star mirror artifact if it were closer.) And galaxies temporarily form weird shapes as they merge

[–] Soylentcolaispeople@sh.itjust.works 22 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Just speculation but it would be totally plausible for a helix shaped galaxy or star (possibly being pulled into a black hole) oriented from an odd angle, with either a gap or a cloud of some sort blocking one part of it and it just happens to look like a common glyph.

But I'm no starologist

[–] capt_wolf@lemmy.world 37 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Could also be two or more systems colliding with each other. Similar to this

[–] eagleeyedtiger@lemmy.nz 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I wanted to guess gravitational lensing, but couldn't see how that would make a question mark.. it's still pretty cool!