Hot gas in the center is an active star formation region

May 18, 2013 14:11 GMT  ·  By

Johnny Cash's classic Ring of Fire seems to be inspiring astronomers and space goers alike these days.

SpaceX is using the song as a soundtrack to its tests of the Grasshopper reusable rocket, and NASA is using it to describe a rather astonishing photo of the spiral galaxy Messier 94 (or NGC 4736) captured by the Spitzer Space Telescope.

Spitzer captures infrared light, of course, so the image has been adjusted and brought into the visible spectrum, with blue hues representing shorter infrared wavelengths and red longer ones.

"Starburst rings like this can often be triggered by gravitational encounters with other galaxies but, in this case, may have instead been caused by the galaxy's oval shape," NASA explains.

"Gas in the ring is being converted into hot, young stars, which then warm the dust, causing it to glow with infrared light," it adds.