Galaxy-sized peanuts? Astronomers use new imaging software to detect double 'peanut shell' galaxy

Astronomers at Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, have discovered an unusually shaped structure in two nearby disc galaxies. The Swinburne team recently developed new imaging software, making it possible to observe the double "peanut shell shape" formed by the distribution of stars bulging from the centres of these galaxies. The results are published in a new paper in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.