Hubble image of a star-studded galaxy emerges as Picture of the Week
NGC 4571 is a spiral galaxy located about 60 million light-years away in the constellation Berenices. This Hubble image shows the galaxy’s spiral arms with the numerous star clusters around it. The stars that make up the cluster are hot, young, and massive stars that appear blue in this image.
The image also shows pink-glowing regions. These are regions of star formation. Young hot stars emit large amounts of ultraviolet radiation, which ionizes the surrounding hydrogen gas. This results in the emission of H-alpha light. The H-alpha light is what gives star-forming regions their characteristic pinkish color.
Observations like this highlight how impressive the process of star formation is. It is even more interesting when you consider that the hot stars seen in this image were formed from gas at freezing temperatures.
Before stars form, gas clouds at freezing temperatures are pulled by gravity. This pull causes the gas to collapse inward. As the gas collapses, it gradually heats up in the center and eventually begins to shine.
A previous image of NGC 4571 was released in 2022. That image was derived from a large program of observations. This new image adds more data.
It includes data from a program aimed at understanding how dust affects our observations of young stars still buried inside their birth clouds. Astronomers continue to use Hubble images like this to unwrap the mystery of star formation.
