Fact Sheet
Popping Off
Millions of stars are being born in the violent merger of two galaxies known as the Antennae. As the galaxies move through each other, vast clouds of gas and dust ram together. The clouds are squeezed and split into smaller clouds, and their material coalesces to form new stars. Star formation is concentrated in the bright red and pink regions in this recently released image from Hubble Space Telescope. Each of these super-sized stellar nurseries is giving birth to tens of thousands of stars, with plenty of gas and dust left over for billions more. [Credit: NASA/ESA,/Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)/ESA/Hubble Collaboration]
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