NASA Hubble Telescope Captures Spectacular Image of M83 Spiral Galaxy

Astronomers have used the Hubble Space Telescope to produce a spectacular, new mosaic image of the Southern pinwheel, a spiral galaxy that lies 15 million light-years away. The new picture reveals vibrant magentas and blues that show that the galaxy is ablaze with star formation.

The galaxy is officially known as M83 and is located in the constellation Hydra. The picture itself captures thousands of star clusters, hundreds of thousands of individual stars and supernova remnants. In fact, the panorama reveals a tapestry of the drama of stellar birth and death spread across 50,000 light years.

The newest generations of stars form largely in clusters on the edges of the dark spiral dust lanes. These brilliant young stellar groupings produce huge amounts of ultraviolet light that's absorbed by surrounding diffuse gas clouds. This causes them to glow in a pink, hydrogen light.

The fierce stellar winds from the most massive and youngest stars blow away the gas and reveal bright blue star clusters. This gives a "Swiss cheese" appearance to the spiral arms. In addition, you can see interstellar "bubbles" in this image that are produced by nearly 300 supernovas.

So what does this image mean for astronomers? It shows quite a bit about the birth, life and death of stars. The supernova remnants in particular are interesting, since they may allow researchers to better understand the nature of the stars that exploded and dispersed nuclear processed chemical elements back into the galaxy. These elements will eventually contribute to the next generation of new stars, continuing the cycle into the future.

Currently, astronomers plan to launch the M83 project in order to learn a bit more about this galaxy.  Participants will help estimate ages for about 3,000 star clusters by examining the presence or absence of pink hydrogen emission, the sharpness of individual stars and the colors of the clusters. The research could lend new insight into star and galaxy formation.