The Hubble Space Telescope continues its series of discoveries and this time it photographed the youngest galaxy ever observed
The Hubble Space Telescope recently captured a view of what may be the youngest galaxy ever seen. This galaxy was characterized by a late bloom and it may not have started star forming activity until 13 billion years after the big bang, that is, about half a billion years ago. The galaxy named I Zwicky 18 (bottom left). This galaxy is at most 500 million years old. Its first stars were formed 500 million years ago and the last - only 4 million years ago.
This cluster is of the typical type of galaxies that characterized the early universe. It is classified as a dwarf irregular galaxy and is much smaller than our Milky Way.
The two main star-forming regions visible as blue-white knots are combined in the core of the galaxy. The blue coils surrounding the star formation region in the center are bubbles of gas that have been heated by the stellar wind as well as ultraviolet light released from young, hot stars. The stars and red star clusters are slightly older, but are also less than a billion years old.
A companion galaxy is just up in the upper right of the dwarf galaxy. It is possible that there is interaction between the two galaxies and it is possible that it is the one that started the current star formation process. The red bubbles surrounding the dwarf galaxy are a dim remnant of ancient active galaxies.
The image was taken by Hubble's Advanced Survey Camera in 2003.
Credit: NASA, ESA, Y. Izotov (Main Astronomical Observatory, Kyiv, UA) and T. Thuan (University of Virginia)
For a press release from the Space Telescope Research Institute
