NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day Collection

NGC 4214: Star Forming Galaxy

Dazzling displays of star formation abound across the face of galaxy NGC 4214, a mere 13 million light-years away in the northern constellation Canes Venatici [ http://www.astro.wi…constellations/Canes _Venatici.html ]. While this 1997 Hubble Space Telescope image [ http://oposite.stsc…] shows the numerous faint, older stars of NGC 4214 [ http://heritage.sts…], the most eye-catching features are the galaxy's bright young star clusters surrounded by fluorescent gas clouds. Sculpted [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] into bubbles and filamentary shapes by energetic explosions [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] and stellar winds [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] from massive cluster stars, the clouds fluoresce in the intense stellar ultraviolet radiation. The colorful [ http://www.c3.lanl.…] spectacle of massive young star forming clusters and distinguished presence of a fainter, older stellar population indicate that NGC 4214 has experienced star formation [ http://observe.ivv.…Star_index.html ] episodes spanning billions of years.

John MacKenty (STScI [ http://www.stsci.edu]) et al. [ http://heritage.sts…] & the Hubble Heritage Team [ mailto:heritage@stsc i.edu ] (AURA [ http://www.aura-ast…]/ STScI [ http://www.stsci.ed…]/ NASA [ http://www.nasa.gov/])

galaxies

star formation

ngc 4214

Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)

Aura

Canes Venatici

Hubble Space Telescope (HST)

New General Catalogue (NGC)

http://antwrp.gsfc.…

SPD-APOD-ap000107