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TOPSHOTS-SPACE-STARS-M83
TOPSHOTS This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image taken during Servicing Mission 4 in May and obtained November 11, 2009 shows a detailed view of star birth in the spiral galaxy M83. The image reveals in unprecedented detail the current rapid rate of star birth in this famous "grand design" spiral galaxy. The newest generations of stars are forming largely in clusters on the edges of the dark dust lanes, the backbone of the spiral arms. These fledgling stars, only a few million years old, are bursting out of their dusty cocoons and producing bubbles of reddish glowing hydrogen gas. The remains of about 60 supernova blasts, the deaths of massive stars, can be seen in the image, five times more than known previously in this region. WFC3 identified the remnants of exploded stars. By studying these remnants, astronomers can better understand the nature of the progenitor stars, which are responsible for the creation and dispersal of most of the galaxy's heavy elements. M83, located in the Southern Hemisphere, is often compared to M51, dubbed the Whirlpool galaxy, in the Northern Hemisphere. Located 15 million light-years away in the constellation Hydra, M83 is two times closer to Earth than M51. AFP PHOTO/NASA, ESA/ R. O'Connell (University of Virginia), B. Whitmore (Space Telescope Science Institute), M. Dopita (Australian National University), and the Wide Field Camera 3 Science Oversight Committee/HANDOUT/RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE
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-, SPACE |
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AFP / Mediafax Foto |
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HO |
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11 Noiembrie 2009 |
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2048 x 1536 (1.12 MB) |
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