NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope Releases An Image Of An Irregular Galaxy​

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NASA has released an image of a quite peculiar galaxy captured by Hubble Space Telescope on June 21st, 2019. The image was uploaded on NASA’s Hubble designated page, with the title mentioning an ‘elusive, irregular galaxy.’

Hubble Space Telescope snapped an irregular galaxy

Hubble Space Telescope is one of the world’s most essential and powerful telescope, to which NASA appeals to release incredible images every once in a while. The image captured this time depicts an irregular galaxy, which was named IC 10, a part of the Local Group. The Local Group is a constellation of more than 50 galaxies in our cosmic vicinity that is comprising our Milky Way as well.

IC 10 is an outstanding cosmic object. It is the closest known starburst galaxy, which means that it is experiencing a violent fight of star formation nourished by abundant supplies of cold hydrogen gas.

That gas comprises into large molecular clouds, which then take a form of some dense knots where pressures and temperatures get to a point high enough to light up nuclear fusion, therefore giving birth to a new generation of stars.

IC 10, the irregular galaxy, is an exciting galaxy to study

Because it is an irregular galaxy, IC 10 does not have the beautiful and imposing shape of spiral galaxies, such as the Milky Way of our system, or be spherical, like the beautiful form of oval-shaped galaxies.

IC 10 is a vague object, in spite of its proportionate proximity to Earth of 2.2 million light-years. As a matter of fact, the galaxy only became known to humans back in 1887, when American astronomer Lewis Swift discovered it while on an observing project. The tiny galaxy is quite challenging to study even today, due to its location, which is along the field of vision, a chock-full of cosmic stars and dust.

A version of the released image was entered into the NASA Hubble Space Telescope’s Hidden Treasures image processing competition by Nikolaus Sulzenauer ​ and was awarded the 10th prize.

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