NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is sending back images of objects in the universe to be stored in a data archive. The new image shows the subtle glow of a galaxy called IC 3430, 45 million light-years from Earth, in the constellation Virgo.
Astronomers describe IC 3430 as a dwarf elliptical galaxy. It is part of the Virgo Cluster, a group of large and small galaxies. IC 3430 has a simple elliptical shape. It has almost no recognizable features, such as spiral arms or a nucleus, and it lacks the gas needed to form many new stars. But IC 3430 does have some attractions: its core is large, blue, rich in stars, and very hot, something rarely seen in elliptical galaxies. This indicates recent star formation activity.
Astronomers believe that the pressure from the galaxies pushing gas inside the Maiden cluster interacts with the gas at the heart of IC 3430, causing new stars to form.
Image credit: ESA/Hubble and NASA, M.Sun
