14 DAY TRIAL // The Hubble Space Telescope launched 25 years ago, in February 1990, and has since delivered enough data and views of stars, galaxies, nebulae and other of our celestial neighbors for astronomers to ink nearly 13,000 studies on the origin and the evolution of our cosmos.
Although just years away from retirement - its successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, is already in the making - Hubble has not yet lost its touch when it comes to probing the depths of the universe.
Recently, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has beamed back a portrait of a dwarf galaxy located at a distance of about 60 million light-years from our Solar System, in the constellation of Eridanus. The galaxy, shown in the image below, is called NGC 1140.
When compared to the Milky Way, this dwarf galaxy imaged is about 10 times smaller. Like the Large Magellanic Cloud, another small galaxy orbiting the Milky Way, it has an irregular form.
The galaxy is creating stars at a rapid pace
Although much smaller than the Milky Way, NGC 1140 is by no means what some would call lazy. On the contrary, Hubble data indicates NGC 1140 is creating new stars at a rate comparable to that of our own galaxy, i.e. one Sun-sized star per year.
The young stars that have so far formed in this dwarf galaxy's entrails are shown in bright, blueish white in the view obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope, Phys Org explains.
Scientists say that, when its larger stars reach the end of their life and explode into supernovae, NGC 1140 will most likely be torn apart by the force of the blasts. More precisely, the explosions will push its gas reserves into space.
Since cosmic gas is the main ingredient from which all the stars in the universe are made, this means that the dwarf galaxy will eventually lose its ability to form any new fiery bodies, wither and die.
