ESO’s Very Large Telescope captured this view of the starburst galaxy NGC 4303, with clouds of ionized oxygen, hydrogen and sulfur gas shown in blue, green and red, respectively. (Image credit: ESO/PHANGS)
A stunning new photo captures bright, golden swirling clouds of gas that are creating an extremely high rate of star formation.
This stellar nursery, a spiral galaxy known as NGC 4303 or Messier 61, is located 50 million light-years from Earth at constellation Virgo. NGC 4303 is one of the largest galactic members of the Virgo Cluster — a large, nearby group galaxies.
NGC 4303 is considered a starburst galaxy, where there is an unusually high amount stars are born. In turn, studying this type of galaxy helps astronomers better understand star formation throughout the universe, according to a statement from the European Southern Observatory (ESO).
“Stars form when clouds of cold gas collapse,” ESO officials wrote in the statement. “Energetic radiation from newborn stars will heat and ionize the remaining environment.”
The photo, taken using ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, shows bright swirling clouds of ionized gas, appearing as a “golden vortex.” The swirling clouds are like cosmic crumbs, tracing the path of new stars being born, according to the statement.
Astronomers using the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument on the VLT observed NGC 4303 in different wavelengths of light to create this ‘jewel-like’ image. Combining their observations revealed a glowing golden vortex, speckled with gas clouds of ionized oxygen, hydrogen, and sulfur that show up in blue, green, and red, respectively.
The recent observations were collected as part of a project called Physics at High Angular Resolution in Nearby Galaxies (PHANGS), which aims to reveal nearby galaxies at all wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum, according to the statement.
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