POX 186: Not So Long Ago
Credit & Copyright: Michael Corbin (CSC/STScI),
William Vacca (MPE),
NASA
Explanation:
Not so long ago and not so far, far away, a
galaxy
was born.
Seen in this Hubble Space Telescope image, the
island universe of
stars, gas, and dust cataloged as POX 186 is a mere 68 million
light-years distant toward an uncrowded region in the
constellation Virgo.
POX 186 is truly
dwarfed by
galaxies like our own Milky Way.
The diminutive galaxy is about 900 light-years across with around 10
million stars, compared to the
Milky
Way's 100,000 light-year span and
more than
200 billion stars.
Cosmically speaking,
POX 186 is
also very young as the Hubble snapshot
reveals a disturbed galaxy that is likely
the result of a 100 million
year old
collision between two even smaller
star systems.
In fact,
POX 186 observations
suggest that such isolated, small
galaxies may be the last to form, since the most massive
galaxies
in the universe seem to have formed billions of years ago.
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.
