A new photo of a distant galaxy has exposed a frenzy of star formation driven by what scientists are calling a cosmic "superbubble."The new image shows the starburst galaxy NGC 1313, which has been knowledge active star formation that astronomers have been at a loss to explain. Radio telescope observations suggest that the edge of an increasing "superbubble" is causing gas to pile up and spur the formation of stars."What triggered the superbubble is still a mystery. It would have necessary about a thousand supernovae to go off in the space of just a few million years, or else something punched its way through the disk and set it off like ripples in a pond," said Stuart Ryder, Australian Gemini Scientist at the Anglo-Australian Observatory, who has studied this galaxy extensively.
The extraordinary detail and clarity of the new image — taken with the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph on the Gemini South telescope — reveals myriad bubbles, shock fronts, star clusters, and sites where massive stars are being born.Multitudes of colorful shining gas clouds can be seen in the new galaxy view. It was taken using the Gemini South telescope in Chile.
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