File:Extreme NGC 3125.png

This irregular blob of a galaxy has some serious star formation going on. The star cluster slightly up and to the right of center is the one <a href="http://archive.stsci.edu/proposal_search.php?mission=hst&id=10400" rel="nofollow">referenced in this proposal</a> as 'The Most Extreme Wolf-Rayet Star Cluster Known in the Local Universe' by Dr. Rupali Chandar. Watch her talking about her findings regarding star clusters in general <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70VwTsFjgcw" rel="nofollow">here</a>. They talk about the HLA at the end! I am dubious about ever making a discovery that forever changes the way we view the universe as is used for a closing statement, but yeah, the HLA is pretty sweet.

Anyway, if you dare, you can attempt to read a paper on NGC 3125-A1 <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1312.5982" rel="nofollow">here</a>. If not, I will roughly translate it for you in a single sentence: Hot diggity dang, there's a lot of ionized helium there.

Some things to point out: The fuzzy, white "stars" dotting the edges of the galaxy are actually globular clusters, so that gives you a better sense for the scale of the galaxy. It's not a huge galaxy but the the star formation is raging as can be inferred by the red filaments of H-alpha which virtually encompass the whole thing and the usual accompanying hot, young, blue stars. Annotation of star cluster locations is <a href="http://www.geckzilla.com/astro/NGC3125_annotated.jpg" rel="nofollow">here</a>, which I made by referencing the paper I mentioned earlier.

This picture features wideband infrared, green, blue, and ultraviolet filters along with the lovable H-alpha filter. Note I did use the F814W filter across all three channels but mostly it inhabits the red along with the H-alpha.

Red: HST_10400_01_ACS_HRC_F814W_sci + HST_10400_01_ACS_HRC_F658N_sci Green: HST_10400_01_ACS_HRC_F555W_sci Blue: HST_10400_01_ACS_HRC_F435W_sci + HST_10400_01_ACS_HRC_F330W_sci