NGC 5253 (collage)

This picture from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope depicts the starburst galaxy NGC 5253, observed by two of Hubble’s instruments over a span of ten years.

At the bottom is a wide view of the galaxy, comprising data from Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) using the Wide Field Channel, and from the older Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. Here the dense clouds of gas and dust in the galaxy are in full view, illuminated by bright and hot star clusters, at the centre of a vast array of stars. You can view this image in more detail here.

Above is a more detailed shot, obtained using the High Resolution Channel (HRC) of the ACS instrument. The pullout shows which region of the galaxy was captured by HRC. This focused image was used to study super star clusters in the dust-filled core of the galaxy. See the full image here.

[Image Description: A montage of two images of a dwarf galaxy. At bottom, the entire galaxy is seen against a dark background. A white box marks an area of the galaxy’s core, and a pullout connects this to the image above, which shows that area brightly and in more detail.]