An Infrared Galaxy Gallery
Explanation:
Where do stars form in galaxies?
One way to find this out it to look for glowing
hydrogen,
a material common to hot
star-forming regions.
To find large areas of glowing
hydrogen, the
Hubble Space Telescope's
NICMOS
instrument
surveyed about 100 nearby
spiral galaxies.
Six of
these galaxies are shown above: NGC 5653, NGC 3593,
NGC 891, NGC 6946,
NGC 4826, and NGC 2903.
Each galaxy is many millions of light-years distant.
NICMOS was calibrated to isolate a very specific
type of light emitted by hydrogen gas in the
infrared. This emission is colored red in the
above photograph, and is relatively free
from absorption by dark
dust.
These photographs show that stars are forming more vigorously in some parts of galaxies
than others.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
