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FOR RELEASE: August 7, 1996

PHOTO NO.: STScI-PRC96-27


GIANT STARBIRTH REGION IN NEIGHBORING GALAXY

This is a Hubble Space Telescope image (right) of a vast nebula
called NGC 604, which lies in the neighboring spiral galaxy M33,
located 2.7 million light-years away in the constellation
Triangulum.

This is a site where new stars are being born in a spiral arm
of the galaxy. Though such nebulae are common in galaxies,
this one is particularly large, nearly 1,500 light-years across.
The nebula is so vast it is easily seen in ground-based
telescopic images (left).

At the heart of NGC 604 are over 200 hot stars, much more
massive than our Sun (15 to 60 solar masses). They heat the
gaseous walls of the nebula making the gas fluoresce. Their
light also highlights the nebula's three-dimensional shape,
like a lantern in a cavern. By studying the physical structure
of a giant nebula, astronomers may determine how clusters of
massive stars affect the evolution of the interstellar medium
of the galaxy. The nebula also yields clues to its star
formation history and will improve understanding of the
starburst process when a galaxy undergoes a "firestorm" of
star formation.

The image was taken on January 17, 1995 with Hubble's Wide Field
and Planetary Camera 2. Separate exposures were taken in
different colors of light to study the physical properties of
the hot gas (17,000 degrees Fahrenheit, 10,000 degrees Kelvin).

Credit: Hui Yang (University of Illinois) and NASA.

Ground-based image courtesy of Palomar Observatory, Caltech and
the STScI Digitized Sky Survey (AURA).

Image files in GIF and JPEG format and captions may be accessed
on Internet via anonymous ftp from oposite.stsci.edu in /pubinfo.

GIF JPEG
PRC96-27 NGC 604 in M33 gif/NGC604.gif jpeg/NGC604.jpg

Higher resolution digital versions (300dpi JPEG) of the release
photograph are available in /pubinfo/hrtemp: 96-27 (color) and
96-27bw.jpg (black/white).

GIF and JPEG images, captions and press release text are
available via World Wide Web at
http://www.stsci.edu/pubinfo/PR/96/27.html and via links in:
http://www.stsci.edu/pubinfo/Latest.html or
http://www.stsci.edu/pubinfo/Pictures.html.

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