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Blaze of Star Formation Seen in New Hubble Picture
By SPACE.com Staff
posted: 07:00 am ET
25 March 2002
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Image credit: ESA/NASA/HUBBLE/Nicole Homeier A new picture from the Hubble Space Telescope shows a galaxy ablaze with star formation. NGC 7673 is a relatively nearby example of the type of vigorous star formation that researchers think may have taken place in the early universe. Telltale patches of blue light are signs of the formation of millions of new stars. But researchers puzzle over why there is such a remarkable flurry of star formation. Either a near miss or a collision between NGC 7673 and a nearby galaxy, or some unusual circumstances within the spiral galaxy itself, say the scientists who produced the new image. For example, there may have been an overabundance of gas in the galaxy's disc that became gravitationally unstable, forming huge gas clumps that then burst into stellar 'flame'. "For many years we have only been able to see the star-forming regions as fuzzy clumps from ground-based telescopes," Nicole Homeier from the European Southern Observatory in Munich, Germany and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "Now, with Hubble we can study how these clumps may have originated and how this 'starburst galaxy' relates to the younger star-forming galaxies we see in the early universe." She added that answers may come in the next few years. Each of the bluish areas in the new image consists of immense star clusters containing thousands of young stars, according to Homeier and her colleagues. These clusters lie on the spiral arms of NGC 7673 and so emphasize its somewhat ragged look. NGC 7673 is located in the constellation of Pegasus at an approximate distance of 150 million light-years. The image, released Monday, was produced with data gathered by Hubble in 1996 and 1997. Also visible is another, more distant galaxy to the left of NGC 7673. More Hubble News | Astronomy News Briefs
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