File:Bars and Baby Stars (49467753536).jpg

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The galaxy depicted in this Picture of the Week is a barred spiral known as NGC 7541, seen here as viewed by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, in the constellation of Pisces (The Fishes).

A barred spiral is a galaxy with whirling, pinwheeling, spiral arms, and a bright centre that is intersected by a bar of gas and stars. This bar cuts directly through the galaxy’s central region, and is thought to invigorate the region somewhat, sparking activity and fuelling myriad processes that may otherwise have never occurred or have previously ground to a halt (star formation and active galactic nuclei being key examples). We think bars exist in up to two-thirds of all spiral galaxies, including our own home, the Milky Way.

NGC 7541 is actually observed to have a higher-than-usual star formation rate, adding weight to the theory that spiral bars act as stellar nurseries, corralling and funnelling inwards the material and fuel needed to create and nurture new baby stars. Along with its nearby companion NGC 7537, the galaxy makes up a pair of galaxies located about 110 million light-years away from us.

Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Riess et al.; <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" rel="noreferrer nofollow">CC BY 4.0</a>
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Source Bars and Baby Stars
Author European Space Agency

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This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
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This image was originally posted to Flickr by europeanspaceagency at https://flickr.com/photos/37472264@N04/49467753536. It was reviewed on 3 December 2020 by FlickreviewR 2 and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-2.0.

3 December 2020

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Date/TimeThumbnailDimensionsUserComment
current19:11, 3 December 2020Thumbnail for version as of 19:11, 3 December 20204,020 × 2,933 (7.99 MB)Eyes Roger (talk | contribs)Transferred from Flickr via #flickr2commons

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