Credit:  ESA/Hubble, NASA Y. Choi (NOIRLab), K. Gilbert (Space Telescope Science Institute), J. Dalcanton (Flatiron Institute and University of Washington)

The billion stars in galaxy UGC 8091 resembles a sparkling snow globe in this festive Hubble Space Telescope image.

The dwarf irregular galaxy is approximately 7 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo. Unlike other galaxies whose stars take a more orderly appearance, the stars that make up this celestial gathering look more like a brightly shining tangle of string lights than a galaxy.

Some irregular galaxies may have become tangled by tumultuous internal activity, while others have formed by interactions with neighboring galaxies. The result is a class of galaxies with a diverse array of sizes and shapes, including the diffuse scatter of stars that is this galaxy.

Twelve camera filters were combined to produce this image, with light from the mid-ultraviolet through to the red end of the visible spectrum. The blossoming patches of blue represent ultraviolet and blue light from hot, energetic stars that have formed in recent starbursts. The other sparkles on shown in this image are a mix of older stars.

The data used in this image were taken by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 and the Advanced Camera for Surveys from 2006 to 2021.

Among other things, the observing programs sought to investigate the role that dwarf galaxies many billions of years ago had in re-heating cold hydrogen, making the universe transparent to light. Astronomers are also investigating the composition of dwarf galaxies and their stars to uncover the evolutionary links between these ancient galaxies and more modern galaxies like our own.

Provider: Space Telescope Science Institute

Image Source: https://hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2023/news-2023-020

Curator: STScI, Baltimore, MD, USA

Image Use Policy: http://stsci.edu/copyright/