The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has delivered an unrivalled snapshot of a small galaxy called ESO 338-4.
This Hubble image shows the blue compact dwarf galaxy ESO 338-4. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.
ESO 338-4, also known as LEDA 63240 and IRAS 19245-4140, is classified as a blue compact dwarf galaxy.
It resides in the constellation Corona Australis, some 100 million light-years from Earth.
Blue compact dwarf galaxies take their name from the intensely blue star-forming regions that are often found within their cores.
One such region can be seen embedded in ESO 338-4, which is populated with bright young stars voraciously consuming hydrogen.
These massive stars are doomed to a short existence, as despite their vast supplies of hydrogen fuel.
The nuclear reactions in the cores of these stars will burn through these supplies in only millions of years.
The young blue stars nestled within a cloud of dust and gas in the center of this image are the result of a recent galaxy merger between a wandering galaxy and ESO 388-4.
This galactic interaction disrupted the clouds of gas and dust surrounding the galaxy and led to the rapid formation of a new population of stars.
The color image of ESO 338-4 was made from separate exposures taken in the visible, ultraviolet and infrared regions of the spectrum with Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) and Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS).
Five filters were used to sample various wavelengths.
The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter.
