esahubble_opo1448g November 19th, 2014
Credit: NASA, ESA, and P. Sell (Texas Tech University)
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of the galaxy J1506+5402 shows it is undergoing a firestorm of star birth, as shown by its bright white cores. This star-making frenzy was ignited by mergers with other galaxies. The odd shape of the galaxy is telltale evidence of a close encounters. The new Hubble Wide Field Camera 3 observations of this and eleven other galaxies undergoing the same process suggest that energy from the star-birthing frenzies created powerful winds that are blowing out the gas, meaning it is not available to form future generations of stars. This activity occurred when the Universe was half its current age of 13.7 billion years. The gas-poor galaxies may eventually become so-called red and dead galaxies, composed only of aging stars. This Hubble false-colour image was processed to bring out important details in the galaxy. The image were taken in 2010. Links: NASA Press release Fast evolution of a galaxy Outflows from twelve merging galaxies Outflows from merging galaxy J0826+4305 Outflows from merging galaxy J0944+0930 Outflows from merging galaxy J1104+5946 Outflows from merging galaxy J1359+5137 Outflows from merging galaxy J1506+6131 Outflows from merging galaxy J1558+3957 Outflows from merging galaxy J1613+2834 Outflows from merging galaxy J1634+4619 Outflows from merging galaxy J1713+2817 Outflows from merging galaxy J2118+0017 Outflows from merging galaxy J2140+1209
Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA
Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo1448g/
Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, Germany
Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Detailed color mapping information coming soon...
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