Hubble’s Space Telescope provides some of the most fascinating images of outer space available on the internet. NASA Hubble posted a picture on its social media account of a new galaxy that is a hotbed of star formation.
Though this galaxy is millions of light-years away from Earth, Hubble gave us a glimpse of its beauty. The Hubble space telescope described this new galaxy as a “star factory” because it is producing billions of star clusters in space! This dwarf galaxy is known as NGC 1569, and the image shared by NASA is full of sparkling stars and celestial bodies.
NASA said in a statement about the image that “This galaxy experienced a sudden and rapid rise in star birth about 25 million years ago, which gradually declined around the time of the very earliest human ancestors appearing on Earth.”
A glittering galaxy ✨
This #HubbleClassic shows a hotbed of vigorous starbirth named NGC 1569. The galaxy's "star factories" are manufacturing bright blue star clusters!
NGC 1569 is ~7 million light-years away: https://t.co/Qs2axkYuKJ pic.twitter.com/5fI02e56Li
— Hubble (@NASAHubble) April 5, 2022
In the image’s galactic features, one can see bubble-like structures made of hydrogen gas. According to NASA, this gas glows when it is violently hit by winds, radiation from young stars, and supernovae shocks.
According to the agency, the first supernovae in the galaxy exploded roughly 20-25 million years ago, when the most massive stars reached the end of their lives. NGC 1569 is home to two young and massive star clusters, as well as a slew of smaller ones, according to Hubble observations.
Notably, the two young clusters match those found in the Milky Way, while the smaller ones are comparable to clusters of lower mass found throughout our galaxy. The galaxy produced stars for 20 million years after the beginning of the starburst, according to a team of European scientists who studied it in great detail in 2004.