Astronomy Picture of the Week – Starburst Galaxy NGC 1569

September 1, 2011 /

This image of a dwarf galaxy called NGC 1569 was taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. It is of one of the most active galaxies in our local neighborhood. NGC 1569 gives birth to stars at a rate that is 100 times faster than the rate observed in our Milky Way Galaxy. This is why it is called a starburst galaxy which is a type of galaxies with an exceptionally high rate of star formation. This star-birthing frenzy may be caused by the compression of gas by gravitational interactions among the group’s galaxies. This galaxy is 11 million light-years from Earth.

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), and A. Aloisi (STScI/ESA)

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Paul Tomaszewski

Paul Tomaszewski is a science & tech writer as well as a programmer and entrepreneur. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of CosmoBC. He has a degree in computer science from John Abbott College, a bachelor's degree in technology from the Memorial University of Newfoundland, and completed some business and economics classes at Concordia University in Montreal. While in college he was the vice-president of the Astronomy Club. In his spare time he is an amateur astronomer and enjoys reading or watching science-fiction. You can follow him on LinkedIn and Twitter.