This latest image released from the Hubble Space Telescope shows the dwarf galaxy NGC 4449, located about 12.5 million light-years away. Although the galaxy has been around for billions of years, it recently went through a period of intense star formation.
Most starburst galaxies concentrate their stellar formation around the crowded galactic core, but in NGC 4449, the active regions extend out across more of the galaxy. This will only last for another billion years or so, when the gas supply that feeds the star forming regions runs out. It will then stay quiet until it has a close encounter with another galaxy, starting the process all over again.
A galaxy like NGC 4449 resembles what the first primordial galaxies probably looked like, formed shortly after the Big Bang when the Universe was young. Many small galaxies merged together forming larger and larger galaxies until they became the majestic spirals we see today. Each new merger brings in a fresh supply of raw materials as well as the gravitational interactions to force gas clouds to collapse.
Original Source:Hubble
Recent Posts
Astronomers Will Get Gravitational Wave Alerts Within 30 Seconds
Any event in the cosmos generates gravitational waves, the bigger the event, the more disturbance.…
Next Generation Ion Engines Will Be Extremely Powerful
During the Space Race, scientists in both the United States and the Soviet Union investigated…
Neutron Stars Could be Capturing Primordial Black Holes
The Milky Way has a missing pulsar problem in its core. Astronomers have tried to…
Japan’s Lunar Lander Survives its Third Lunar Night
Space travel and exploration was never going to be easy. Failures are sadly all too…
Black Holes Can Halt Star Formation in Massive Galaxies
It’s difficult to actually visualise a universe that is changing. Things tend to happen at…
Mapping the Milky Way’s Magnetic Field in 3D
We are all very familiar with the concept of the Earth’s magnetic field. It turns…