NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has captured a stunning image of the blue dwarf galaxy Markarian 178 (Mrk 178), which is located 13 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. The galaxy is significantly smaller than our own Milky Way and features a broad halo of stars dispersed around its core, with several small, glowing patches of gas where there are concentrations of very hot stars.
At the center of Mrk 178 lies a region of intense star formation, characterized by rare massive Wolf-Rayet stars that have undergone a transformation in their evolution. These stars cast off their atmospheres through powerful winds, resulting in bright emission lines on the galaxy's spectrum, which appear as a reddish hue in this image.
Researchers believe that something triggered a recent burst of star formation in Mrk 178, possibly due to a gas cloud crashing into the galaxy or the intergalactic medium disturbing its gas as it moved through space. The exact cause remains unclear, but astronomers are eager to study this phenomenon further using Hubble's advanced capabilities.
At the center of Mrk 178 lies a region of intense star formation, characterized by rare massive Wolf-Rayet stars that have undergone a transformation in their evolution. These stars cast off their atmospheres through powerful winds, resulting in bright emission lines on the galaxy's spectrum, which appear as a reddish hue in this image.
Researchers believe that something triggered a recent burst of star formation in Mrk 178, possibly due to a gas cloud crashing into the galaxy or the intergalactic medium disturbing its gas as it moved through space. The exact cause remains unclear, but astronomers are eager to study this phenomenon further using Hubble's advanced capabilities.