In this festive Hubble Space Telescope image from NASA and ESA (European Space Agency), the galaxy UGC 8091 resembles a sparkling snow globe filled with a billion stars. Credits: ESA/Hubble, NASA, ESA, Yumi Choi (NSF’s NOIRLab), Karoline Gilbert (STScI), Julianne Dalcanton (Center for Computational Astrophysics/Flatiron Institute, Washington)
Dwarf irregular galaxies are born and dazzling stars are born
Hubble’s colorful snapshots show that the universe always seems to be in the holiday spirit. The dwarf irregular galaxy UGC 8091 is a rich example. A dizzying interplay of matter and energy bubbles up to create a dazzling blue, newborn star that looks like a celebratory string of lights. They are encased in a glowing cocoon of hot pink hydrogen gas. A galaxy is a collection of about 1 billion stars. That sounds like a lot, but it’s one-hundredth of the number of stars in our adult bodies. milky way Galaxy.
This little galaxy came late to the party. The early universe was filled with dwarf galaxies, which eventually merged to form the magnificent spiral galaxies that surround us today. Seven million light-years away, UGC 8091 has only recently begun to display its glittering tapestry.
The Hubble Space Telescope is an iconic symbol of space exploration, launched into orbit in 1990. Hubble revolutionized astronomy by providing unprecedented clarity and deep views of the universe, far beyond the distortions of Earth’s atmosphere. Credit: NASA
Hubble Space Telescope presents a starry sky for Christmas
The billion stars of galaxy UGC 8091 resemble sparkling snow globes during this festival. hubble space telescope Images from NASA and ESA (European Space Agency).
The dwarf galaxy is located in the constellation Virgo, about 7 million light-years from Earth. It is considered an “irregular galaxy” because it does not have a regular spiral or elliptical appearance. Rather, the stars that make up this cluster look more like a tangle of bright string lights than a galaxy.
Some irregular galaxies are entangled due to tumultuous internal activity, while others are formed by interactions with neighboring galaxies. The result is a class of galaxies of varying size and shape, including those whose stars are diffuse and scattered.
A combination of 12 camera filters produced this image using light from the mid-ultraviolet to the red end of the visible spectrum. The red spots are likely interstellar hydrogen molecules, excited by the light from the hot, energetic star and glowing. The other sparkles you see in this image are old star combinations. A diverse array of distant galaxies appears in the background, captured by Hubble’s sharp field of view.
The data used in this image was taken by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 and Advanced Survey Camera from 2006 to 2021.
Among other things, the observing program involved in this image sought to investigate the role that dwarf galaxies billions of years ago played in reheating hydrogen that had cooled after the universe expanded. big bang.
Astronomers are also studying the composition of dwarf galaxies and their stars to uncover evolutionary connections between these ancient galaxies and more modern galaxies like ours.
The Hubble Space Telescope is an international cooperation project between the two countries. NASA And ESA. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, conducts science operations for Hubble and Webb. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Astronomical Research in Washington, DC.
Source: scitechdaily.com
