The 12 galaxies in these Hubble Space Telescope images are undergoing a firestorm of star birth, as shown by their bright white cores. Hubble reveals that the galaxies' star-making frenzy was ignited by mergers with other galaxies. The odd shapes of many of the galaxies are telltale evidence of those close encounters.
The new Hubble Wide Field Camera 3 observations suggest that energy from the star-birthing frenzy created powerful winds that are blowing out the gas, squelching future generations of stars. This activity occurred when the universe was half its current age of 13.7 billion years. The gas-poor galaxies may eventually become so-called "red and dead" galaxies, composed only of aging stars.
The galaxies are the most compact yet found. They contain as much mass as our Milky Way galaxy, but packed into a much smaller area. The smallest galaxies are about 650 light-years across.
The Hubble false-color images were processed to bring out important details in the galaxies. The images were taken in 2010.
Credits
NASA, ESA, and P. Sell (Texas Tech University)| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Description | Merging Galaxies with Outflows |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | Hubble data for this release were obtained from the following HST proposal (PI: C. Tremonti, University of Wisconsin, Madison). The science team includes: P. H. Sell (Texas Tech University, Lubbock), C. Tremonti (University of Wisconsin, Madison), R. C. Hickox (Dartmouth College), A. M. Diamond-Stanic (University of Wisconsin, Madison), J. Moustakas (Siena College, NY), A. Coil (University of California, San Diego), A. Williams (University of Wisconsin, Madison), G. Rudnick (University of Kansas), A. Robaina (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor), J. Geach (University of Hertfordshire), and S. Heinz and E. Wilcots (University of Wisconsin, Madison). Top Row (left to right): Object name: J0826+4305 Redshift: 0.604 RA: 08h 26m 38s.148 Dec: 43° 05' 19''.92 Object name: J0944+0930 Redshift: 0.514 RA: 09h 44m 17s.427 Dec: 09° 30' 27''.20 Object name: J1104+5946 Redshift: 0.573 RA: 11h 04m 39s.195 Dec: 59° 46' 10''.82 Object name: J1359+5137 Redshift: 0.413 RA: 13h 59m 22s.62 Dec: 51° 37' 39''.55 Middle Row (left to right): Object name: J1506+5402 Redshift: 0.609 RA: 15h 06m 37s.340 Dec: 54° 02' 16''.88 Object name: J1506+6131 Redshift: 0.437 RA: 15h 06m 03s.284 Dec: 61° 31' 38''.51 Object name: J1558+3957 Redshift: 0.403 RA: 15h 58m 11s.312 Dec: 39° 57' 10''.83 Object name: J1613+2834 Redshift: 0.450 RA: 16h 13m 33s.275 Dec: 28° 34' 12''.86 Bottom Row (left to right): Object name: J1634+4619 Redshift: 0.576 RA: 16h 34m 47s.408 Dec: 46° 19' 49''.79 Object name: J1713+2817 Redshift: 0.577 RA: 17h 13m 00s.830 Dec: 28° 17' 00''.60 Object name: J2118+0017 Redshift: 0.460 RA: 21h 18m 24s.581 Dec: 00° 17' 02''.17 Object name: J2140+1209 Redshift: 0.752 RA: 21h 40m 0s.989 Dec: 12° 09' 07''.69 |
| Instrument | HST>WFC3/UVIS |
| Exposure Dates | February - November, 2010 |
| Filters | F814W (I) |
| About The Image | |
| 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. |
