New bridge of stars between two galaxies discovered by Hubble

HubbleThe Hubble telescope detected a spiral bridge of young stars between two ancient galaxies that form when gas dynamics and galaxies come together. It photographed a 100,000 light-year-long structure that is made up of superclusters of intense blue-white newly born stars. This discovery may give astronomers new insight stellar superclusters formation which is a hardly ever seen process.

What makes this phenomenal discovery rare and the first time huge elliptical galaxies have merged. This supercluster was discovered by chance while researchers were reviewing images brought in by Hubble; the galactic string of young stars is component of the Hubble program aimed to monitor 23 gigantic clusters which form strong gravitational lensing special effects on sky.

The structure is described as having a “pearl of strings” look to it which part of the physics phenomenon caused by internal pressure of interstellar gas that is not powerful enough to thwart possibility of gravitational collapse in a region full of matter, with the end result being star formation. This process is comparable to the one which bring a water column falling from a cloud to came down as rain (so lots of little drops) rather than in a unique and continuous streams.

This is why these young blue superclusters are evenly spaced along the bridge through the galaxies at separations of 3,000 light-years. Scientists are still seeking to better understand the star chain’s origin. There are three more main possibilities that they still have to pursue before they settle on one explanation.