APOD
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
Stars Without Galaxies
Explanation: Explanation : Galaxies are made up of stars, but are all stars found within galaxies ? Apparently not. Using the Hubble Space Telescope, researchers exploring the Virgo Cluster of galaxies have now found about 600 red giant stars adrift in intergalactic space . Above is an artist's vision of the sky from a hypothetical planet of such a lonely sun. The night sky on a world orbiting an intergalactic star would be a stark contrast to Earth's - which features a nightly parade of stars, all members of our own Milkyway galaxy . As suggested by the illustration, a setting swollen red sun would leave behind a dark sky speckled only with faint, fuzzy, apparitions of Virgo Cluster galaxies . Possibly ejected from their home galaxies during galaxy-galaxy collisions , these isolated suns may well represent part of a large, previously unseen stellar population, filling the the space between Virgo cluster galaxies .
| Date | February 3, 1997 |
|---|---|
| Credit |
Stars Without Galaxies Credit: Illustrator J. Gitlin (STScI), H. Ferguson (STScI), N. Tanvir (IoA), T. von Hippel (U. Wisc.), NASA, |
| Authors & editors: | Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP) |
| A service of: |
ASD at NASA / GSFC, NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U. |