Dwarf barred irregular galaxy NGC 4214 is located 10 million light-years from Earth in the constellation of Canes Venatici (The Hunting Dogs), but what it lacks in size it more than makes up for in content.
Note: Some sources say this dwarf galaxy is actually 13 million light-years from Earth.
With everything from hot, young star-forming regions to old clusters with red supergiants, it’s packed with just about everything you could ask for.
The galaxy’s relative close proximity to us, combined with the wide variety of evolutionary stages among the stars, makes it an ideal laboratory to research what triggers star formation and evolution.
NGC 4214 is both larger and brighter than the Small Magellanic Cloud (or Nebucula Minor), and the largest star-forming regions (NGC 4214-I and NGC 4214-II) can be found in the galaxy’s center.
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Of the two, NGC 4214-I contains a super star cluster rich in Wolf-Rayet stars and NGC 4214-II is younger (age less than 3 million years), including a number of star clusters and stellar associations.
NGC 4214 also has two older super star clusters, both with an age of 200 million years.
NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration. Acknowledgment: R. O’Connell (University of Virginia) and the WFC3 Scientific Oversight Committee. Download larger image here.
In this optical and near-infrared image obtained by the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope, intricate patterns of glowing ionized hydrogen gas, cavities blown clear of gas by stellar wind, and bright stellar clusters of NGC 4214 can be seen.
At the center of the image lies a huge heart-shaped cavity, at the heart of which rests a large cluster of massive, young stars ranging in temperature from 10,000 to 50,000 degrees Celsius. Strong stellar winds from these infant stars are responsible for the creation of this hollow area, preventing any further star formation from occurring in this region.
NGC 4214 also contains a large amount of gas, some of which can be seen glowing red in the image, providing abundant material for star formation. The area with the most hydrogen gas, and consequently, the youngest clusters of stars (around two million years old), lies in the upper part of this image.
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Clusters of much older red supergiant stars near the end of their evolution can also be found within NGC 4214. Additional older stars can be seen strewn across the galaxy. While these are dominant in infrared emission they can only be seen shining faintly in this visible-light image.
Editor’s Note: A dwarf galaxy is a small galaxy composed of up to several billion stars, a small number compared to the Milky Way’s 200–400 billion stars. The Large Magellanic Cloud, which closely orbits the Milky Way and contains over 30 billion stars, is sometimes classified as a dwarf galaxy; others consider it a full-fledged galaxy. Dwarf galaxies’ formation and activity are thought to be heavily influenced by interactions with larger galaxies. Astronomers identify numerous types of dwarf galaxies, based on their shape and composition.
Also located in the constellation of Canes Venatici are:
Spiral galaxy NGC 4707;
Blue compact dwarf galaxy Markarian 209;
Spiral galaxy Messier 63 (the Sunflower Galaxy); and
Seyfert II spiral galaxy M106.
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