NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day Collection

NGC 4314: A Nuclear Starburst Ring

Is this old galaxy up to new tricks? The barred spiral galaxy [ http://zebu.uoregon…] NGC 4314 is billions of years old, but its appearance has changed markedly over just the past few " millions " of years. During that time, a nuclear ring of bright young stars has been evolving. The inset picture of NGC 4314 [ http://adsabs.harva…4314&txt_logic=OR&te xt=&nr_to_return=50& start_nr=1&query_typ e=PAPERS&select_nr=5 0&select_start=1&sta rt_entry_day=&start_ entry_mon=&start_ent ry_year=&min_score=& jou_pick=ALL&ref_ste ms=&data_and=ALL&gro up_and=ALL&sort=SCOR E&aut_wt=1.0&obj_wt= 1.0&ttl_wt=0.3&txt_w t=3.0&aut_syn=YES&tt l_syn=YES&txt_syn=YE S&aut_wgt=YES&obj_wg t=YES&ttl_wgt=YES&tx t_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YE S&txt_sco=YES&db_key =AST&version=1&noset cookie=1 ] taken by McDonald Observatory [ http://numedia.tddc…] shows the whole galaxy and boxes the small region around the core imaged [ http://oposite.stsc…] by the Hubble Space Telescope [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…]. This inner region [ http://oposite.stsc…] appears much like a miniature spiral galaxy [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] itself, complete with dust [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…] lanes and spiral arms, even though it is only a few thousand light-years across. Further study of NGC 4314 [ http://adsbit.harva…] might help astronomers understand how the inner and outer parts of this galaxy interact, and what caused this unusual ring of star formation.

G. F. Benedict (U. Texas [ http://www.as.utexa…]) et al., WFPC2, HST, NASA [ http://www.nasa.gov/]

galaxy

spiral

starburst

Texas

NGC 4314

Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)

SIM

YES

SCORE

Hubble Space Telescope (HST)

New General Catalogue (NGC)

http://antwrp.gsfc.…

SPD-APOD-ap980615