Enjoy this beautiful photo of a starburst galaxy, courtesy of Hubble
Stars are bursting into life in the constellation of Virgo, which lies a mere 50 million light-years away from Earth.
The Hubble space telescope recently captured a beautifully detailed view of NGC 4526, one of the so-called starburst galaxies within Virgo.
A starburst galaxy is a galaxy that's experiencing an exceptionally high rate of star formation.
Starburst galaxies contain regions where stars form at such a breakneck speed that the galaxy devours its gas supply faster than it can be replenished, NASA and the European Space Agency said in an April 14 update.
Scientists are far from fully understanding how galaxies form and evolve. But starburst galaxies offer astronomers clues as to how galaxies might evolve over time.
When stars form, for instance, they leave behind a few fingerprints.
Star formation requires a massive supply of gas, which galaxies can acquire by passing very closely to another galaxy, by slamming directly into it, or through another event that pushes huge amounts of gas into a relatively small space.
Young stars "live fast and die young" — much like James Dean or a Rick Ross song — in these extreme environments, NASA and ESA said in the update.
The stars burn extremely hot and quickly exhaust their gas supplies, all while emitting an enormous amount of intense ultraviolet light. The UV bursts blast the electrons off any atoms of hydrogen in the vicinity, leaving behind colorful clouds of ionized hydrogen.
The image snapped by Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 shows the breathtaking aftermath of such a scene.
Maria Gallucci was a Science Reporter at Mashable. She was previously the energy and environment reporter at International Business Times; features editor of Makeshift magazine; clean economy reporter for InsideClimate News; and a correspondent in Mexico City until 2011. Maria holds degrees in journalism and Spanish from Ohio University's Honors Tutorial College.
