The outer space in a fascinating and monstrous place, as it houses an infinity of mysteries that scientists seek to discover. Despite being known, the celestial bodies will not cease to amaze this community and humanity. One of the questions is how stars are born, which seems to have been answered after the latest images captured by the Hubble telescope.
The POT reported that said observation instrument managed to capture an explosion of star formation in the galaxy spiral known as NGC 4666 which is 80 million light-years away in the Virgo constellation.
Astronomers refer to rapidly forming star-forming galaxies as starburst galaxies. The galaxy’s outburst is likely due to gravitational interactions with its neighbors, including the nearby galaxy NGC 4668 and a “dwarf” galaxy, which is made up of a few billion stars, the space agency noted.
What is happening in the galaxy NGC 4666?
“The burst of star formation from NGC 4666 it’s driving an unusual form of extreme galactic weather known as a superwind: a gigantic transfer of gas from the galaxy’s bright central heart into space. This is the result of the driving winds of massive short-lived stars formed during the stellar burst of NGC 4666, as well as spectacularly energetic supernova explosions, “explained the POT through a statement.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (POT) commented that two supernovae occurred in the galaxy NGC 4666 in the last decade, one in 2014 and the other in 2019. “The star that led to the 2019 supernova was 19 times more massive than our Sun!”
He mentioned that although the torrent of superheated gas emanating from the NGC 4666 It is really huge in scale, stretching for tens of thousands of light years, it is invisible in the image you presented on your social media.
“The extremely high temperature of the super wind makes it stand out as a column of light in X-ray or radio observations, but does not appear at the visible wavelengths captured by the wide-field camera 3 of the Hubble“, said.
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