NASA shares new Hubble image featuring glittering hotbed of star factories; Know more

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is winning the internet yet again, this time with the picture of a new galaxy that is a hotbed of vigorous star formation. Named NGC 1569, this entity is a dwarf galaxy and lies approximately seven million light-years away from Earth. Known to house "star factories", this galaxy is manufacturing brilliant blue star clusters which can be spotted in this brilliantly glittering photograph below. 

Star formation stopped after emergence of humans on Earth

According to NASA, the galaxy NGC 1569 had a sudden outburst of star formation about 25 million years ago. Interestingly, this abruptly stopped around the time when the first human ancestors emerged on Earth. The agency says that this dwarf galaxy is one of the closest starburst galaxies which makes it easier for Hubble to make a detailed study of its local counterparts, nearby starburst and colliding galaxies. 

Hubble observations have revealed that NGC 1569 harbours two young and massive star clusters along with a large number of smaller ones. Notably, the couple of young clusters match those found in the Milky Way whereas the smaller ones are comparable with clusters having lower mass around our galaxy. Studied in great detail in 2004, the galaxy produced stars for 20 million years after the beginning of the starburst, found a team of European scientists. Astronomer and study author Peter Anders says as per NASA's report, "We are looking straight into the very creation processes of the stars and star clusters in this galaxy. The clusters themselves present us with a fossil record of NGC 1569's intense star formation history."

As for the galactic features in the image, one can spot bubble-like structures which are made of hydrogen gas. This gas, according to NASA, glows when fiercely hit by winds, radiation emerging from young stars and supernovae shocks. The agency says that the first supernovae in the galaxy blew up roughly 20-25 million years ago when the most massive stars reached the final stages of their life.