IF A person is square they are a bit dull, but for a galaxy it is the mark of a true rebel. A rectangular galaxy spotted 70 million light years from Earth is the boxiest galaxy we know.
Galaxies assume one of three shapes: spirals like our Milky Way, blob-shaped ellipticals, or asymmetrical groupings of stars. Box-like galaxies are very rare, says at the Swinburne University of Technology in Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia, one of the new galaxy’s discoverers. “You don’t expect it to exist,” he says of the galaxy, called LEDA 074886.
How would such an angular galaxy…
