This galaxy is a fascinating object, located about 150 million light-years away in the southern constellation Hydra. It’s a spiral galaxy, but unlike the typical flat, orderly disks we often picture when we think of spirals — like the Milky Way or Andromeda — ESO 510-13 has a strikingly warped structure. Its disk, which spans roughly 100,000 light-years across, is bent and twisted, giving it a unique, almost contorted appearance when viewed edge-on.
The warping is most noticeable in its equatorial dust plane, a dark band of interstellar dust and gas that cuts across the galaxy. This dust lane is silhouetted against the bright central bulge — a dense, smooth region packed with older stars — which makes the distortion stand out even more. The galaxy’s disk isn’t just a static, solid plate; it’s a dynamic collection of billions of stars, gas, and dust, all orbiting the galactic center under the influence of gravity. Normally, these disks flatten out over time due to the sticky collisions of gas clouds during a galaxy’s formation, but ESO 510-13’s shape suggests something disrupted that process.
Astronomers think the most likely culprit for this warp is a gravitational interaction with another galaxy. It could have been a close encounter — or even a collision — with a nearby galaxy that tugged on ESO 510-13’s disk, pulling it out of shape. Some speculate this might have involved a merger with a smaller, gas-rich dwarf galaxy, with the dust lane still settling into a more stable, flat configuration. The idea is supported by the fact that warped disks aren’t entirely rare — our own Milky Way has a subtle warp, though nothing as dramatic as this. In ESO 510-13’s case, the distortion is so pronounced that it’s been captured in stunning detail by the Hubble Space Telescope, which imaged it in 2001 using its Wide Field Planetary Camera 2.
What’s also intriguing is the evidence of ongoing activity in the warped regions. In the outer parts of the disk, especially on one side, you can see bright patches of blue stars — hot, young ones that have recently formed. This suggests that the gravitational upheaval might have compressed gas clouds, triggering new star formation. It’s a vivid reminder that galaxies aren’t static; they’re shaped by chaotic, messy interactions over cosmic timescales.
There’s still plenty we don’t fully understand, though. The exact cause of the warp — whether it was a single dramatic event or a series of interactions — isn’t pinned down. The dynamics of how these warped disks evolve, rebound, and eventually flatten out are also still being studied. ESO 510-13 is like a snapshot of a galaxy caught mid-transformation, offering a glimpse into the forces that sculpt the universe’s grand spirals.
Additional information from Human
To say that some object - for example, a galaxy, nebula or star cluster - is located in the constellation Hydra means to say almost nothing. Not everyone knows this, but Hydra is the largest constellation. And it is not so much large as long. It begins from the constellations of the winter sky, bordering on Canis Minor and Monoceros. And Hydra ends at the junction of the spring and summer constellations, touching the borders of Libra and Virgo, its tail just short of reaching the Claws of Scorpio. The head of Hydra, located north of the celestial equator, is clearly visible in winter and early spring. And the tail of Hydra, plunging deep into the southern celestial hemisphere, is visible in late spring and early summer. Hydra seems to connect the winter and summer groups of constellations. But it is quite difficult to see it in its entirety in the sky. Because when the head of Hydra is visible, the tail is still below the horizon. But when the tail of Hydra rises, its head leaves the visible part of the sky.
So, the galaxy ESO 510-13 is located in the tail of Hydra - literally on the border with the constellation Centaurus. Its declination is -30 degrees. It is inconvenient to observe the galaxy ESO 510-13 from the northern hemisphere of the Earth, especially given its low brightness, which is weaker than the 13th magnitude. It is not surprising that there is only one decent picture of this star city on the Internet - taken by the Hubble telescope - and who else could show this galaxy in detail? Pictures from most other telescopes are not very impressive.
It may seem that this galaxy is not very large, since its images are so nondescript (even the Hubble picture does not create the feeling of something very large). But the thing is that the galaxy ESO 510-13 is quite far from us. It is not at the edge of the Universe, but it is not in our immediate intergalactic environment either. The distance to it is 150 million light years. You can compare how far it is: The Andromeda Galaxy is 2.5 million light years away. The Sombrero Galaxy (which is also visible edge-on) is 30 million light years away. And this curved universal "propeller" is 150 million light years away. This is a lot - even for Hubble. But nevertheless, the space telescope has revealed many details that arouse interest in this galaxy more and more.
The size of the galaxy ESO 510-13 corresponds to the size of the Milky Way - it is in many ways similar to our Galaxy. It has the same diameter - 100 thousand light years. It is also spiral (although we don't know - it has a bridge from the core to the spiral arms - this is not visible when viewed from the edge). And what is most important for us - our Milky Way Galaxy also has a significant curvature of the spiral arms. Usually astronomers carefully say that the deformation of the galactic disk of the Milky Way is small. But how did we know this? Only by indirect signs - when studying its shape from the inside. And from the inside, you can see little.
How much can you say about the shape of your house, being inside it, and never going outside? Or - being on the surface of the Earth, is it easy to verify its sphericity? It's not that easy. That is why many people still cannot accept the sphericity of the Earth's shape as truth. It is approximately the same with the shape of the galaxy. Being inside it, it is very difficult to understand how it looks from the outside. But, fortunately, we have the opportunity to see other galaxies from the outside, and draw some conclusions, understand the reasons and correlation of what is happening there with what is happening with our Galaxy.
Our galaxy is constantly absorbing other galaxies - those that are smaller. That is why it has grown to such gigantic sizes - 100 thousand light years - this is a very large galaxy. But each absorption necessarily deforms the Milky Way. And the next deformation begins long before the absorption or merger. For example, dwarf galaxies located near the Milky Way - the Magellanic Clouds - are already noticeably influencing the shape of the spiral arms of our star city, pulling them in their direction.
It is also interesting that after the merger, the deformation does not disappear by itself. It may happen that it will acquire a stable character, catching a resonance wave, when the bend will start to swing first to one side of the galactic equator, then to the other, as if falling under the galactic plane, and soaring from under it on the second half of the turn of the galactic orbit. Incidentally, this is exactly how the Sun moves around the center of our Galaxy - its galactic orbit does not lie exactly in the plane of the galactic disk, but makes sinusoidal oscillations - dives through the plane of the spiral arms. The passage of the Sun and the Solar System through densely populated regions of the Milky Way correlates with some processes in the Earth's biosphere, such as mass extinctions and evolutionary bursts in the appearance of new species. And this, too, may have a cause associated with galactic mergers in the history of the Milky Way.
It is quite possible that the galaxy ESO 510-13 in the tail of the constellation Hydra is literally showing us our history, only from a very large distance - both in space and in time.
Warped Spiral Galaxy ESO 510-13 in the SIMBAD Astronomical Database
