This image taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope showcases the brilliant core of one of the most active galaxies in our local neighborhood. The entire core is 5,000 light-years wide.
The galaxy, called NGC 1569, sparkles with the light from millions of newly formed young stars. NGC 1569 is pumping out stars at a rate that is 100 times faster than the rate observed in our Milky Way Galaxy. This frenzied pace has been almost continuous for the past 100 million years.
The core's centerpiece is a grouping of three giant star clusters, each containing more than a million stars. (Two of the clusters are so close they appear as one grouping.) The clusters reside in a large, central cavity. The gas in the cavity has been blown out by the multitude of massive, young stars that already exploded as supernovae. These explosions also triggered a violent flow of gas and particles that is sculpting giant gaseous structures. The sculpted structure at lower right is about 3,700 light-years long.
Huge bubbles of gas, such as the two at left, appear like floating islands. The largest bubble is about 378 light-years wide and the smallest 119 light-years wide. They are being illuminated by the radiation from the bright, young stars within them. Some of those stars are peeking through their gaseous cocoons.
The biggest and brightest objects surrounding the core are stars scattered throughout our Milky Way Galaxy. In contrast, the thousands of tiny white dots in the image are stars in the halo of NGC 1569. The galaxy is 11 million light-years from Earth.
A new analysis of NGC 1569 shows that it is one and a half times farther from Earth than astronomers previously thought. The extra distance places the galaxy in the middle of a group of about 10 galaxies centered on the spiral galaxy IC 342. Gravitational interactions among the group's galaxies may be compressing gas in NGC 1569 and igniting the star-birthing frenzy.
Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 and Advanced Camera for Surveys made the observations of NGC 1569 in September 1999, November 2006, and January 2007.
Credits
Credit for Advanced Camera Data: NASA, ESA, A. Aloisi (STScI/ESA), J. Mack and A. Grocholski (STScI), M. Sirianni (STScI/ESA), R. van der Marel (STScI), L. Angeretti, D. Romano, and M. Tosi (INAF-OAB), and F. Annibali, L. Greggio, and E. Held (INAF-OAP);Credit for Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 Data: NASA, ESA, P. Shopbell (California Institute of Technology), R. Dufour (Rice University), D. Walter (South Carolina State University, Orangeburg), and A. Wilson (University of Maryland, College Park)
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), and A. Aloisi (STScI/ESA)
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | NGC 1569 |
| Object Description | Dwarf Irregular Galaxy |
| R.A. Position | 04h 30m 49.0s |
| Dec. Position | 64° 50' 52.0" |
| Constellation | Camelopardalis |
| Distance | 11 million light-years (3.4 megaparsecs) |
| Dimensions | This image is roughly 2.7 arcminutes (8,700 light-years or 2,700 parsecs) wide. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | HST Proposal: P. Shopbell (Caltech), R. Dufour (Rice University), D. Walter (South Carolina State University), and A. Wilson (University of Maryland) HST Proposal: A. Aloisi (STScI/ESA) et al. The science team includes: A. Aloisi (STScI/ESA), L. Angeretti (Astronomical Observatory of Bologna/INAF), F. Annibali and L. Greggio (Astronomical Observatory of Padua/INAF), A. Grocholski (STScI), E. Held (Astronomical Observatory of Padua/INAF), J. Mack (STScI), D. Romano (Astronomical Observatory of Bologna/INAF), M. Sirianni (STScI/ESA), M. Tosi (Astronomical Observatory of Bologna/INAF), and R. van der Marel (STScI). |
| Instrument | HST>ACS/WFC and HST>WFPC2 |
| Exposure Dates | September 1999, November 2006, and January 2007 |
| Filters | ACS: F658N (H-alpha + [N II]) and F606W (wide V) WFPC2: F502N ([O III]), F487 (H-beta) |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | The image is a composite of separate exposures made by the ACS and WFPC2 instruments on the Hubble Space Telescope. Three filters were used to sample narrow-wavelength ranges. One filter was used to sample broad wavelengths. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic image. In this case, the assigned colors are: Red: F658N (H-alpha + [N II]) Green/cyan: F606W (wide V) Cyan: F502N ([O III]) Blue: F487 (H-beta) |
| Compass Image |  |
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object. |
| Object Description | The type of astronomical object. |
| R.A. Position | Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Dec. Position | Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Constellation | One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears. |
| Distance | The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs. |
| Dimensions | The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description |
|
| Instrument | The science instrument used to produce the data. |
| Exposure Dates | The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time. |
| Filters | The camera filters that were used in the science observations. |
| About The Image | |
| Image Credit | The primary individuals and institutions responsible for the content. |
| Publication Date | The date and time the release content became public. |
| Color Info | A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented. |
| Orientation | The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere. |
