Hickson Compact Group 31: Interacting Galaxies Aglow with Millio

stsci_2010-08a February 18th, 2010

Credit: NASA, ESA, S. Gallagher (The University of Western Ontario), and J. English (University of Manitoba)

This striking collection of galaxies is known as Hickson Compact Group 31, located 166 million light-years away. The image was composed from observations made by the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, and the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX). These four dwarf galaxies waited billions of years to come together, setting off a fireworks show as thousands of new star clusters come to life. The distorted galaxies are quickly producing massive, hot, young stars that are pumping out ultraviolet radiation, heating up surrounding gas clouds, and causing them to glow. Myriad star clusters have formed in the streamers of debris pulled from the galaxies and at the site of their head-on collision. The cigar-shaped object above the galaxy duo is another member of the group. A bridge of star clusters connects the trio while a long rope of bright star clusters points to the fourth member of the group, at lower right.

Provider: Space Telescope Science Institute

Image Source: https://hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2010/news-2010-08

Curator: STScI, Baltimore, MD, USA

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