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Hubble peers into the core of a starburst galaxy – See pic!

Last Updated: Tuesday, July 26, 2016 - 15:42
Hubble peers into the core of a starburst galaxy – See pic!
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt

New Delhi: The Hubble Space Telescope has captured and released a stunning image revealing the vibrant core of the galaxy NGC 3125.

 

As per the European Space Agency (ESA), NGC 3125, discovered by John Herschel in 1835, is a great example of a starburst galaxy - a galaxy in which unusually high numbers of new stars are forming, springing to life within intensely hot clouds of gas.

NGC 3125 is located approximately 50 million light-years away in the constellation of Antlia (The Air Pump). It is similar to, but unfathomably brighter and more energetic than, one of the Magellanic Clouds.

Spanning 15,000 light-years, the galaxy displays massive and violent bursts of star formation, as shown by the hot, young, and blue stars scattered throughout the galaxy’s rose-tinted core, adds ESA.

 

Some of these clumps of stars are notable - one of the most extreme Wolf–Rayet star clusters in the local Universe, NGC 3125-A1, resides within NGC 3125.

Despite their appearance, the fuzzy white blobs dotted around the edge of this galaxy are not stars, but globular clusters, which orbit around galactic centers like satellites - the Milky Way, for example, hosts over 150 of them.

First Published: Tuesday, July 26, 2016 - 15:41
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