Hubble's View of Hickson Compact Group 31

stsci_2010-08b February 18th, 2010

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

In this image, taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, four dwarf galaxies have 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. Members of Hickson Compact Group 31, they are relatively nearby, only 166 million light-years away. The bright, distorted object at middle, left, is actually two colliding dwarf galaxies. 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. A long rope of bright star clusters points to the fourth member of the group, at lower right. The bright object in the center is a foreground star.

Provider: Space Telescope Science Institute

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

Curator: STScI, Baltimore, MD, USA

Image Use Policy: http://hubblesite.org/copyright/