NASA`s Hubble views secluded starburst galaxy! See pic

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: NASA and ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys has spotted a secluded starburst galaxy named MCG+07-33-027.

According to NASA, MCG+07-33-027 lies some 300 million light-years away from the earth. It is now experiencing an extraordinarily high rate of star formation, a starburst.

Normal galaxies produce only a couple of new stars per year, but starburst galaxies can produce a hundred times more than that.

This galaxy's spiral arms and the bright star-forming regions within them are clearly visible and easy for the astronomers to study it.

As per report, the parent galaxy, inorder to form a new galaxy, has to hold a large reservoir of gas, which is slowly depleted to spawn stars over time. For galaxies in a state of starburst, this intense period of star formation has to be triggered somehow — often this happens due to a collision with another galaxy. MCG+07-33-027, however, is special; while many galaxies are located within a large cluster of galaxies, MCG+07-33-027 is a field galaxy, which means it is rather isolated.

Thus, the triggering of the starburst was most likely not due to a collision with a neighboring or passing galaxy and astronomers are still speculating about the cause. The bright object to the right of the galaxy is a foreground star in our own galaxy.