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Starburst in NGC 4449 (captured by the Hubble Space Telescope)
NASA, ESA, A. Aloisi (STScI/ESA), and The Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration
2005-11
- Classification
- Photograph
- Museum
- Wikimedia Commons
- Credit line
- http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2007/26/image/a/ (direct link)
- Rights
- Public domain, as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its museum says too little about what it shows to place it for younger viewers. How works are placed
About this work
Hundreds of thousands of vibrant blue and red stars blaze in this image taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Hot bluish-white clusters of massive stars are scattered throughout the galaxy, interspersed with numerous dustier, reddish regions of current star formation. Massive dark clouds of gas and dust are silhouetted against the starlight.
NGC 4449 has been forming stars for several billion years, but currently it is experiencing a star formation event at a much higher rate than in the past. This unusually explosive and intense star formation activity qualifies as a starburst. At the current rate, the gas supply that feeds the stellar production would only last for another billion years or so.
Starbursts usually occur in the central regions of galaxies, but NGC 4449 has more widespread star formation activity, since the very youngest stars are observed both in the nucleus and in streams surrounding the galaxy.
A global starburst like NGC 4449 resembles primordial star forming galaxies, which grew by merging with and accreting smaller stellar systems. Since NGC 4449 is close enough to be observed in great detail, it is the ideal laboratory for the investigation of what may…
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