© NASA
A nearby galaxy is shining with star formation in a new image from the Hubble Space Telescope. The spiral galaxy Messier 33, also known as the Triangulum Galaxy, is the third-largest member of the Local Group of galaxies after the Andromeda Galaxy and our own Milky Way. Measuring only 60,000 light years across, Messier 33 is about half the size of the Milky Way. Located nearly 3 million light years from Earth, the Triangulum Galaxy is regarded as a hotbed of starbirth, forming stars at a rate ten times higher than the neighbouring Andromeda Galaxy. “Interestingly, Messier 33’s neat, organised spiral arms indicate little interaction with other galaxies, so its rapid starbirth is not fuelled by galactic collision, as in many other galaxies,” NASA officials said.
Instead, new stars are born from ample amounts of dust and gas within the galaxy. Collisions between massive ionised hydrogen clouds known as H II regions create high-mass stars, which can be seen in the new Hubble image. The large reddish clouds in the Hubble photo represent the pockets of ionised hydrogen, which along with the dark streams of gas fuel the galaxy’s rapid star formation. “The apparent graininess of the image is actually swarms of countless stars,” NASA officials said.