NASA unveils discovery of 'monster stars' and massive 'super spiral' galaxies

Saturday, March 19, 2016

NASA unveiled information about newly discovered "spiral galaxies" and "monster stars," seen above.
NASA, ESA, P Crowther (University of Sheffield)

NASA released exciting information on Thursday regarding the discovery of "monster stars" and "spiral galaxies."

Using the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers were able to identify nine "monster stars" that had "masses over 100 times the mass of the sun in the star cluster R136." The stars were discovered in the Tarantula Nebula and are the largest sample of massive stars ever identified, NASA said.

New information about "super spiral" galaxies was also unveiled on Thursday. The large galaxies can be as much as 10 times larger and 14 times brighter than our Milky Way.

"Super spirals could fundamentally change our understanding of the formation and evolution of the most massive galaxies," said Patrick Ogle, astrophysicist at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC). "We have much to learn from these newly identified, galactic leviathans."