Pockets of star formation in DDO 68
Date: 17 May 2018
Satellite: Hubble Space Telescope
Depicts: DDO 68
Copyright: NASA, ESA, and the LEGUS team
The dwarf galaxy DDO 68, also known as UGC 5340, lies about 40 million light-years away from Earth. Due to its proximity it became one of the 50 targets of LEGUS.
In UGC 5340, a pocket of rapid star birth appears in the lower right corner. This region of star formation was probably triggered by a gravitational interaction with an unseen companion galaxy. But star formation is present across the entire body of UGC 5340, and the relatively young stars are responsible for the galaxy's blue-white colour.
An image of this galaxy was already released back in 2014 (heic1421). This newly-processed image now also shows ultraviolet radiation Hubble captured from the galaxy.
Last Update: 1 September 2019
