Barnard’s Galaxy: A Neighbor to Our Milky Way | NOIRLab

Barnard’s Galaxy: A Neighbor to Our Milky Way | NOIRLab

Barnard’s Galaxy, a dwarf galaxy neighboring the Milky Way, is revealed in this stunning image from the 4-meter Víctor M. Blanco Telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, operated by the National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab. The image reveals regions of intense star formation and a scattering of immense cosmic bubbles. Despite its small size, the galaxy contains some spellbinding cosmic objects. Glowing red regions of star formation are scattered throughout Barnard’s Galaxy and indicate that incandescent star birth is widespread. Several other regions are well known in their own right and have been well studied since they were first detected by Edwin Hubble in 1925.

Distance: 2 million light years

Credit: Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO)/NOIRLab/National Science Foundation (NSF)/Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA)

Acknowledgments: P. Massey (Lowell Obs.), G. Jacoby, K. Olsen, C. Smith (NOAO/AURA/NSF) & T.A. Rector (NRAO/AUI/NSF)

Image Processing: Travis Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage), Mahdi Zamani & Davide de Martin

Release Date: April 16, 2020

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