What you see in this photo is a giant starburst in a distant galaxy 12 million light years away from us. This galaxy is called the “Cigar Galaxy” because its shape is elongated, like a cigar. It's actually a spiral galaxy, just like the Milky Way, but it looks like this because we see it from the side.

The Cigar Galaxy is being shaken by the gravitational pull of a nearby giant galaxy (known as M81). This causes new stars to form rapidly in the galaxy. But this star birth won't last forever. Probably within a few tens of millions of years, the gas and dust from which new stars will form will run out and this starburst process will gradually come to an end.

The image was taken in 2006 with NASA's Hubble Telescope. The red regions show intense star formation and hydrogen gas in the galaxy. The blue and greenish-yellow parts represent the wavelengths of light that we can see with the naked eye.

Image description:

A ghostly, bluish-yellow oval intersects an hourglass-shaped red cloud. Stars and galaxies of various colors and sizes illuminate the dark background.

 

Credit: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Legacy Team (STScI/AURA). Acknowledgments: J. Gallagher (University of Wisconsin), M. Mountain (STScI) and P. Puxley (NSF)