Star Superclusters Forming Near Two Galaxies Merging in Galactic Cluster SDSS J1531+3414

This new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows two galaxies from the cluster SDSS J1531+3414.

The two galaxies have been found to be merging into one and a "chain" of young stellar superclusters are seen winding around the galaxies' nuclei. The galaxies are surrounded by an egg-shaped blue ring caused by the immense gravity of the cluster bending light from other galaxies beyond it.

Image credit: NASA, ESA/Hubble and Grant Tremblay (European Southern Observatory)

Acknowledgements: M. Gladders & M. Florian (University of Chicago, USA), S. Baum, C. O'Dea & K. Cooke (Rochester Institute of Technology, USA), M. Bayliss (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, USA), H. Dahle (University of Oslo, Norway), T. Davis (European Southern Observatory), J. Rigby (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, USA), K. Sharon (University of Michigan, USA), E. Soto (The Catholic University of America, USA) and E. Wuyts (Max-Planck-Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Germany).

Note: For more information, see Merging Galaxies and Droplets of Starbirth and Droplets of Star Formation and Two Merging Galaxies in SDSS J1531+3414.