NASA has shared a jaw-dropping new image of an unusual galaxy undergoing a ‘starburst’ phase.
The US space agency took to its Instagram on Thursday to reveal the stunning photo recently taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.
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Visible in the image is a dwarf irregular galaxy dubbed NGC 1705.
The galaxy is located in the southern constellation Pictor, about 17 million light-years away from Earth.
Dwarf irregular galaxies “resemble some of the earliest galaxies that dotted the universe.”
As such, they contain few elements other than hydrogen or helium.
In its post, NASA describes the galaxy as a “cosmic oddity”, because of its irregular shape and small size.
NGC 1705 has also recently undergone a surge of star formation, known as a starburst phase, the US space agency said.
In a starburst galaxy, the rate of star formation is so high that the galaxy will consume all of its gas reservoirs at a much shorter timescale than the age of the galaxy.
Today, spotting starburst galaxies is quite rare, although astronomers have found that they were very common in the early days of the universe.
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Therefore, this particular image is of significance because it will help scientists to observe the interaction between stars, star clusters, and ionized gas in star-forming galaxies.
Hubble captured the photograph, which features hues of red using its Wide Field Camera 3.
“By observing a specific wavelength of light known as H-alpha with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3, astronomers aimed to discover thousands of emission nebulae,” Nasa said in a statement.
Emission nebulae describe regions created when “hot, young stars bathe the clouds of gas surrounding them in ultraviolet light, causing them to glow.”
Since going live on Instagram, this breathtaking image has garnered a lot of attention from astronomy lovers.
Nearly 400,000 users have liked the image so far, and hundreds of others have left comments.
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