Discovering Rare Galaxies

During Burçin Mutlu-Pakdil's TED talk on the universe, the audience learns about the discovery of an extremely rare galaxy that challenges established theories and heavily accented assumptions. The speaker — an astrophysicist and a TED Fellow, shares with the audience the Burçin's Galaxy — a new type of formation altogether. The short talk reveals substantial and concise information about what this discovery means in the field of astrophysics.

There are trillions of galaxies in the universe. A typical one has a spiral formation and scientists have developed strong theories about its evolution. Less common types are referred to as Hoag's Objects. Extremely rare tokens, these galaxies are fewer than one in 1,000. They manifest themselves with a symmetric central body that is surrounded by a circular outer ring and no connector between them.

Burçin Mutlu-Pakdil's talk on the universe speaks of a galaxy that is even rarer. At approximately 359 million light years away (a distance that is not that far from Earth), the Burçin Galaxy revealed to have the composition of a Hoag's Object with an additional diffused inner ring. As there is no known mechanism or theory that can even begin to explain this existence, the peculiar entity challenges humanity's knowledge of galaxy evolution and the vast knowledge gap.