Starburst Galaxy NGC 1569

This galaxy, called NGC 1569, sparkles with the light from millions of newly formed young stars. NGC 1569 is pumping out stars at a rate that is 100 times faster than the rate observed in our Milky Way Galaxy and has been almost continuously for the past 100 million years. The core's centerpiece is a grouping of three giant star clusters, each containing more than a million stars. (Two of the clusters are so close they appear in this Hubble Space Telescope image as one grouping.) The clusters reside in a large, central cavity. The gas in the cavity has been blown out by the multitude of massive, young stars that already exploded as supernovas. These explosions also triggered a violent flow of gas and particles that is sculpting giant gaseous structures. The sculpted structure at lower right is about 3,700 light-years long. Huge bubbles of gas, such as the two at left, appear like floating islands. They are being illuminated by the radiation from the bright, young stars within them.